PayThink

Policymakers clearly don't want to harm small banks, but it's difficult to see how they can insulate us from the macroeconomic effects of some of the proposals being considered.

The requirement is a symptom of a larger problem: Inherently local knowledge is needed for most of the regulations tasked to regulators in Washington.

The United Nations may have declared with much fanfare that 2012 was the International Year of the Cooperative, but U.S. CUs seem not to have gotten the memo until 2013.

Michael Moebs, CEO and Economist of Moebs $ervices, asks "why are banks taxed?"

M. Troy Freedman, an attorney with Richard M. Squire & Associates, LLC, explains how to be proactive and be prepared in dealing with foreclosures.

Private mortgage insurance should be identified as a viable option for credit enhancement as regulators contemplate post-GSE-reform models and Basel III revisions.

Numerous components of Basel III could empower bank regulators to increase the amount of capital banks hold, especially for large banks.

Investors in search of yield are supporting a return to more aggressive, higher-risk transactions. Banks need the discipline of fixed underwriting standards to prevent mindless herding.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have jointly adopted new rules to enable financial firms to set up programs to locate evidence of attempts to steal personal information and to deter identity theft.

The sensitivity now present at the highest levels of the Fed, OCC and FDIC offers great promise to consumers looking to acquire responsible loans from the banking industry.