PayThink

Properly measured and appropriately set capital levels have a long way to go before becoming excessive.

Bankers, analysts and investors can no longer simply consider past performance to gauge if banks have enough capital. The what-if forecasting of regulators' stress tests is critical to the exercise.

Many banks have marketing savvy, but few effectively convert prospects into good customers. Gather sample data tracking your new-prospect encounters to see where and how you fail. Survival requires selling.

CUNA is just a week away from hosting approximately 4,000 people at its annual Governmental Affairs Conference, where there will be lots of talk about government and likely a few affairs.

Sageworks' Vimal Patel tells you what you can do to prepare for the new FASB ALLL rules.

The nature of mergers has changed. For the larger, acquiring credit union, there was a time when mergers meant more opportunity, a bigger book of business and growth into a new region.

Revisiting the way banks, credit unions and nonbank lenders operate (and collaborate) will offer choices, protections and a path to greater financial security.

Boosting regulatory oversight of Wall Street firms will better allocate examiner resources to the riskiest financial firms and help reduce unnecessary burdens on community banks.

At a Senate Banking Committee hearing on the implementation of Dodd-Frank, Sen. Elizabeth Warren demanded to know why regulators are not pursuing banks in court.

Labeling a firm "systemically important" will tip the competitive scales one way or the other – to no purpose, since the exercise is premised on a misunderstanding of the 2008 financial crisis.