PayThink

We at the FDIC continue to believe the small-dollar loan model is replicable and that these loans can be cost-effective and responsive to the needs of both consumers and bankers.

The question has been hanging: Which bank will be the first to put the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to a legal test? Finally, we have an answer.

Banks are entitled to a profit. Customers are entitled to value for their money. Financial products can be designed, marketed and priced to satisfy both parties' needs.

The risky practices at and implicit taxpayer guarantee for systemically dangerous megabanks are driving consumers to community-based banks.

Kevin Mellyn's "Broken Markets" warns that state suppression of market forces could have lasting consequences. Bankers and policymakers should take heed.

During the hearing, frequent reference was made to "risk," a word which was, and should still be, anathema in banking, for bankers do not take risks; they only underwrite risks.

JPMorgan had over $200 billion in TAG deposits in the last quarter. That's almost 20% of the bank's deposits and equal to 60% of the now-infamous chief investment office's portfolio.

Relief from fair value accounting is essential for community banks to survive and ultimately thrive in today’s economic climate. Fortunately, legislation before Congress would untether regulatory accounting practices from GAAP.

There are fewer opportunities for upward mobility, and it's likely that the bank you go to work for will soon be merged out of existence. Is this the kind of environment that attracts the best and brightest?

Risk management is fundamentally a social science built on market data that sometimes misbehaves. The models are fed by crucial assumptions about the likelihood of different market outcomes.