PayThink

Regulators have a legitimate interest in overseeing activities that threaten a bank. But they should lay off bank affiliates and activities that pose no such threats.

"No financial institution's collapse could sink our economy"? Funny. "To accord nonbanks parity with banks, just regulate nonbanks more strictly"? Hilarious. But here's a real howler: "We have to go on subsidizing home building and financing."

The mother of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau spent much of her recent prime-time performance accusing banks of dishonesty. Perhaps she should take a gander in the mirror.

With consumer mobile access for banking channels and services growing, loosening privacy data rules may be the edge needed to combat fraud.

While holding that Congress intended patent-eligible subject matter to "include anything under the sun that is made by man," the Supreme Court has consistently identified three exceptions: laws of nature, physical phenomena and abstract ideas. That last exception has proven most problematic for financial inventions.

The Office of Financial Research, created by the Dodd-Frank Act, has neither yet become the all-powerful entity its opponents feared, nor "the muscular, autonomous U.S. hub for financial regulatory data collection, standardization and storage that its backers hoped for.”

The FDIC can invest in the equity of teetering but salvageable banks. This would save money for the taxpayers, preserve banks that are worth preserving – and send a clear message about the future of community banking.

We've heard plenty about big banks, and a lot about the small banks, but what about the impact of regulation on those that are somewhere inbetween?

The courts' indecision as to whether whistle-blowers who report wrongdoing internally are protected by Dodd-Frank sends one clear message: Come forward at your own risk.

The standard definition of SIFIs is essentially useless. What was intended to be a limited Congressional power has expanded into a blank check to act in any case where there is an aggregate effect on economic activity.