PayThink

This "product" is weakened in the customers' mind when interacting with a living, breathing banker inevitably involves fending off sales pitches.

Every year, the tech industry puts out sophisticated April Fools' Day pranks designed to look too outlandish to be real. But technology is advancing at such a rapid pace that one person's joke is another person's next big product.

Small banks' increased compliance costs could lead to fewer relationship managers, streamlined service models and increased costs of credit. As such, many small business and middle-market customers may simply choose to take their business elsewhere.

To make the process fairer to small banks, regulators should issue community bank summaries during the proposal stage, not when releasing final rules. They also should do more outreach to small banks and extend comment periods on major rules, writes the ABA's Hugh Carney.

Digital person-to-person payments, also known as social payments, have proliferated in the last few years, with the often-heard promise of providing an easier and faster way to split the dinner check.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week.

Profiling is good. Understanding customer needs is good. Proactively recommending products and services is good. But the timing you apply to those things matters.

An obscure bill in the House would go a long way to protect taxpayers by giving megabanks an incentive to deleverage and shrink. So why has it gone nowhere?

In order foster low-cost relationships, banks should offer free digital checking accounts to new and existing customers … then charge for paper notices or statements.

A road map for regulation of virtual currency is beginning to emerge as more states appear willing to issue licenses for entities offering exchange and other services.