PayThink

OK, this isn’t your normal DFRW fare, but we can’t quite let this vision go.

FHFA acting director DeMarco's rejection of principal reductions for underwater homeowners led some to praise his judgment and others to call for his termination. What's your take?

Shouldn't we want to preserve the benefits of being big, global and diversified if society can manage these banks' risk exposures and support their stabilizing effects on economic order?

While I'm sure some community bankers applauded Sandy Weill's recent call to break up our nation's largest banks, I, for one, did not.

The Small Business Lending Enhancement Act would let credit unions help small businesses and our economy without costing taxpayers a dime. Whether lifting the cap creates one job or 1,000, it would be a success.

Two measures that the banking industry is hoping to see pass in the Senate are being stymied by Republican Sen. Jim DeMint. His hold on the bill that combines the two measures is "an effort to force a symbolic vote on repealing" on Dodd-Frank, writes American Banker's Kevin Wack.

"Federal Reserve Board Gov. Sarah Bloom Raskin urged regulators to narrow a proposed exemption to the Volcker Rule, saying it may allow banks to avoid compliance with the ban on proprietary trading," writes American Banker's Donna Boraks.

This is no time to start unwinding the largest banks. There's enough uncertainty in this fragile economy. But starting a conversation now about the costs and benefits will lay the groundwork for sound action when conditions improve.

A year after the Fed enacted the Durbin amendment, predictions that swipe fee reform would kill free checking, hurt credit unions and stifle competition have failed to come true.

The modern, neo-Glass-Steagall advocacy has a mystical quality about it, an appeal that proposes to rise above the tough debate over the thorny details and reach back to a mythical time when bank regulation worked so very well.