PayThink

The World Council of Credit Unions welcomed over 1,800 attendees in Gold Coast, Australia, last week. During the convention, participants networked and learned from industry experts on topics ranging from young adult membership to technology to credit union advocacy.

The U.S. has no shortage of data on the causes and effects of the Great Recession. Regulators have drawn on that information in designing rules intended to curtail the possibility of a repeat event.

The refinancing boom of late has left its mark. With so many homeowners locked into mid-3% mortgage rates, the odds are they will stay put for awhile.

Banks and payment service providers face increasing competition today in onboarding new merchants. For many of them, the merchant onboarding process is very time-consuming, inflexible and costly.

Banks can boost mortgage profits with the help of direct call centers and products like adjustable-rate mortgages and jumbo loans, writes Stratmor Group's Garth Graham.

The mortgage interest tax deduction is supposed to encourage homeownership among low- and middle-income Americans. But it primarily benefits higher-income taxpayers, according to a new study from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

Hilton's updated mobile app, which lets guests use their phones as room keys, has almost nothing to do with payments. But it may be the catalyst the payments industry has long needed to get consumers to warm to mobile wallets.

Bank owners can make more objective decisions about whether it's the right time to sell by comparing the value of holding onto the bank to its private market price and instating an external review process, writes consultant J.V. Rizzi.

Community banks are disappearing and big banks' global power is on the wane. Regulators should take steps to reverse these trends so that all Americans have access to the financial services they need, according to the American Bankers Association's Wayne Abernathy.

With the increased proliferation and reliance on public cloud solutions, combined with the recent high-profile data breaches that have occurred in the past few months, cybersecurity should be a top concern for both issuers and retailers who handle sensitive financial data.