PayThink

With good planning, advisory boards can increase a bank's visibility, credibility and sales.

Former Federal Reserve chair Paul Volcker is far from the first watchdog to suggest the U.S. regulatory system is badly in need of a common-sense makeover. Yet a confusing and ineffective structure remains the status quo.

Square’s expansion into email marketing seemed like a surprise move for the company best known for its mobile point-of-sale system for small businesses.

If banks consider licensed and regularly supervised pawnbrokers with many compliance responsibilities to be too risky to bank, then what Main Street businesses are safe?

Consumers should receive the same level of protection whether they choose to do business with a bank or with marketplace lenders and other challengers.

When a mobile wallet fails, it doesn't go away. Companies can upgrade dormant apps and remove their functionality, but the apps stay on users' phones, each one a headstone in a growing digital graveyard.

More and more legal businesses are finding themselves shut out of the banking system. But there are a number of possible solutions-including passing a law that would require banks to maintain accounts for businesses able to meet some standard of due diligence.

In the same way that Napster and peer-to-peer file sharing changed the face of the recording industry, blockchain technology will force banks to reconsider their traditional roles.

EMV will require new payment processes that, while seemingly small to those instituting the change, require a shift in behavior that could feel monumental to consumers.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including thoughts on the sale of GE Capital and how the CFPB's new mortgage disclosure forms will shake up the industry.