PayThink

The bulwarks of financial privacy may, by default, become unsanctioned, underground networks like Bitcoin and startups run by youngsters brazen, or naive, enough to test the legal and regulatory limits.

The stress of margin compression, combined with the need to generate additional income to maintain investors' return on equity hurdles, is driving more and more community banks into riskier activities.

A cashless society is all well and good. But without the option of private, untraceable payments, life would become unbearable and institutions like marriage and religion could suffer.

Data released recently and featured in this issue of Credit Union Journal uncovered a couple of things one would not have imagined all that long ago.

Recently, the five federal financial regulators released proposed guidelines to help banks and credit unions manage their use of social media networks, like Facebook and Twitter.

Bryan Kratz, senior vice president, community financial institutions with First Data explains why you need to have a device strategy.

Tansley Stearns, director of innovation and applied research with the Filene Research Institute, gives lessons in social media for credit unions from Ultimate Fighting Championships.

Most of the losses banks have caused and suffered could be greatly reduced or eliminated without relying on complex regulations and elaborate risk management. Just promulgate and enforce one simple rule: we tolerate no lying.

Once you stop chuckling at the political incorrectness and retro-futurism of this 1959 speech, you sense the privacy dangers that lurk ahead for us in the present day.

The story of Barings speaks to another era, but also to banking's eternal vulnerabilities.