PayThink

Whether tax reform will make any headway this year remains uncertain, but one thing is clear: eliminating the credit union exemption would be bad for consumers, the financial industry and the economy.

Because of its importance to the credit union system, NCUA's recently proposed rule to update risk-based capital regulations has appropriately garnered much attention.

"Taxation With Over-Representation!" is what I imagine the big sign-boards will read as protesting credit union execs gather to symbolically dump their association dues invoices into the Potomac later this week.

There is little doubt that the risk-based capital proposal issued by the NCUA Board at its last meeting is among the most significant proposals ever issued by the agency.

Phone calls interrupting my lunch are common, but this was one of my primary financial institutions trying to reach me, according to caller ID.

I myself am a HMDA wonk, but one with a rather love-hate relationship to the numbers. I love what they reveal, but hate the headaches that come from wrestling with data.

The rule prohibits big foreign banks from allocating capital and liquidity in a manner they deem to be most efficient. This may be an acceptable price to pay if the overall result were enhanced stability, but trapping capital and liquidity in particular jurisdictions is likely to make large banks less resilient in times of crisis.

Before the Target breach, many merchants were apparently willing to delay or ignore the card networks' deadline for adopting EMV and ready to face the consequences. Now, even merchants who remain unsold on EMV as cost-effective security may view incorporating the technology as unavoidable.

Retail giant Target Corp.'s headache-inducing data breach brings to mind the 1982 Tylenol poisoning crisis—an event that drug maker Johnson & Johnson handled with such aplomb that it restored public confidence in its medicine, altered the way retailers handle product safety and established itself as the gold standard for crisis management.

For his new book, Kevin Roose shadowed new hires at the country’s biggest investment banks. His conclusion: Banks’ problems go well beyond the misdeeds of a few and include doubts about whether they can attract and retain top talent and future leaders.