PayThink

Incensed shareholders and lawsuits triggered by failed say on pay votes aren't the half of it. Just wait until the expected M&A wave unleashes 'say on golden parachute' litigation.

As leaders of church and national minority business organizations, few of our congregants or constituents understand or care about the Volcker Rule. Most, however, are concerned about the growing gap in compensation between the working poor and that of the CEOs of major banks, such as Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase.

Banks today are searching for ways to increase profitability while also navigating a growing number of regulations that require stronger risk management. The result is that banks are trying to pivot back into growth mode while simultaneously needing to manage their exposure more rigorously.

The regulators' proposal doesn't consider accounting rules for deciding which trades are proprietary and which ones get the exemption for hedging. That leaves plenty of room for regulatory arbitrage by banks.

What would happen if you took the creativity and user-focused design sensibility of Silicon Valley and applied it to one of the least consumer-friendly industries on the planet — financial services? What is the Apple of budgeting? The Facebook of lending? The Google of bill payment?

DALLAS -- A stunned Joyce Davis opened her door early yesterday morning to a porch crowded with Neighborhood CU leaders handing her a giant $10,000 check with her name on it—representing her winnings in the credit union’s Prize Savings Account.

Politicians and regulators want taxpayers to believe two things: first, that financial crisis had multiple complex causes mostly related to excessive risk-taking, conflicts of interest and deregulation — a view unconvincingly supported by the exculpatory 662 page summary Report of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission; second, that public regulation is a sisyphean task requiring the 2313 page Dodd-Frank Act. This diagnosis and prescription are both wrong.

The House Financial Services Committee is set to vote on a bill that would benefit just one institutions: Emigrant Bank, whose CEO Howard Milstein has made contributions to many of the bill's co-sponsors. And people wonder why Americans are cynical about politicians.

JPMorgan's trading loss should send shudders down the spine of shareholders, management and regulators. The once paragon of risk management has turned into a case study of what not to do.

The "not-for-charity" leg of the three-legged credit union motto is a bit like the fourth Ghostbuster; there, just not talked about much.