PayThink

If done right, the Fed's stress tests will motivate a renaissance in enterprise risk assessment, breaking the black box and bringing needed transparency to banks' exposures.

Capital requirements for community banks should be raised outside of the Basel III process and through a much more simplified system of risk-weighted assets.

Three things are driving the growth of large banks: market demand, access to capital and regulatory burden created by existing and forthcoming legislation.

Credit Union Journal's Frank J. Diekmann explains why paying credit union boards could hurt the credit union movement.

Margaret Blankers, President of MJB Public Relations Group, explains why the National Credit Union Association board petition is worthy of the "uphill climb."

Kevin W. Mahan, president and actuary of CUBED, explains how to avoid surprises and why it is important to place CEO compensation plan ahead of time.

Digital money like Bitcoin opens up possibilities for banking without central planners or a lender of last resort, where interest rates and reserve requirements are driven purely by the market.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced plans to expand its supervision of the student lending market, proposing that nonbank student loans services become subject to examinations by the bureau. The proposal is another step by the CFPB to broaden its oversight of nonbank financial players.

Regulators and governments worldwide have started a grand experiment to organize a bar code-like identifier for financial market participants. But once-innovative financial utilities may prevent this endeavor from succeeding.

Regulators are not in the bank on a day-to-day basis; usually they can only judge actions after the fact and without all of the relevant information and considerations.