PayThink

The two year anniversary of the signing of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is approaching and many rules required by the legislation still remain unwritten, according to a report from the law firm Davis Polk.

The Office of Financial Research is not yet fully operational. Critics on the Hill want to gut the agency. Its forthcoming annual report presents a chance to win over lawmakers.

Not adjustable rate, variable rate. Unlike the ARMs we know here in the U.S., Canada's VRMs solve the vexing trade-off between monthly payment risk and interest rate risk. The product deserves a close look here south of the border.

David Hirschmann, the president and chief executive of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness, has some suggestions for Richard Cordray. In a letter to the CFPB director he "cited concerns about the new 'abusive' standard that was added to the Dodd-Frank Act, along with the already statutory terms 'unfair and deceptive practices,'" writes American Banker’s Rob Blackwell.

Dodd-Frank has had "crushing impact" on banks and businesses according report from the Georgia Public Policy Foundation and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Neither the FSOC nor the OFR is up and running well enough to address systemic risk. The Systemic Risk Council, a new private-sector nonprofit group, will likely change that.

For some bankers, doing well by doing bad has become a way of life. If ever there was a time to raise the cost of wrongdoing, Liborgate is it.

A basketball coach's praise for his opponent serves as a reminder that the best results come from hustle and hard work.

Lending to American consumers, businesses and other entities is, as best practiced, far from a simple business. Going beyond this to dabble in opaque markets will inevitably degrade the competence with which banks' basic business is conducted.

Though banks must show they are resolvable, a financial institution can also use its resolution plan to advocate preferred solutions to issues on the horizon. And other lessons from the process so far.