PayThink

JPMorgan Chase's recent refusal to process payments for a startup condom company highlights why government crackdowns that treat banks as moral police (ahem, Operation Choke Point) should worry everybody.

Rilla Delorier, SunTrust's marketing chief, says banks need to work together to promote financial health and change behavior. "We have to do this to save our industry," she says.

The Year of Mobile Payments will arrive only when all of the key players — providers, merchants and consumers —are sufficiently motivated to change.

The Federal Reserve's suggestion that bank assets rise in recessions, though supported by data, paints an incomplete picture. Stress ultimately causes bank assets to decline, but with a considerable time lag.

Instead of tasking one team with developing new products, give everyone – from senior management to tellers – permission to innovate continuously. Tapping those with firsthand experience of what works and what doesn't on a day-to-day basis can spur big changes.

Let's stop talking about what we don't like and start having more productive discussions on how elected representatives, regulators, consumer groups and industry leaders can work together to foster innovation in the short-term credit market that leads to better products for the nation's consumers.

With more young adults making large student loan payments instead of saving up for a down payment, combined with car payments and possibly credit card debt, the 43% DTI becomes a very difficult barrier for lenders working within the QM standards.

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

NFC mobile wallets had been disregarded by some in the industry as a viable mobile payment option, but they got a boost with the arrival of a technology that will enable the card data to be stored remotely instead of within a phone. This slight change makes NFC mobile wallets increasingly more attractive as it eliminates one of its biggest stumbling blocks to adoption.

If government bureaucrats, acting without statutory authority, can coerce banks into denying services to firms engaged in lawful behavior that the government does not like, where does it stop?