PayThink

Until the mid 1980s, most fraud went undiagnosed or misreported. The debate today seems to be whether the increasing digital landscape ends up increasing or decreasing fraud overall.

A successful payment network would unite banks under a large and trusted external corporation in order to more simply and transparently tackle currently complex financial supply chains.

The Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform bill included a provision creating Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion in all 20 federal agencies that regulate our financial system.

Notes from around the Credit Union Community.

Smart phones have not only changed the way we communicate with one another, they have also transformed the business landscape, connecting members with online resources from the palm of their hand.

Like the nuclear meltdown that devastated Japan a year ago, America's financial crisis resulted in part from collusion between the regulators in the capital and the regulated in the executive suites. Unlike the Japanese, we didn't learn from our calamity.

Many financial product innovations sound brilliant, but are prone to blow up after 5 or 15 years of increasing emulation and bloat, as discipline declines. Then, after the horses are long gone, Washington thinks about painting the barn. Some of that happened with inventive mortgages and their securitization, with collateral default swaps, with overinvestment in commercial real estate, and — some would allege — with money market funds.

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Many private-equity firms hoped to capitalize on the financial crisis through two waves of bank investments. The first, in 2007-8, focused on large investments in major banks. These disappointing investments were too early as industry conditions worsened dragging down these investments.

Suddenly, it seems like almost everyone is offering a mobile wallet. Major issuers, telco consortiums, search engines and other third-party intermediaries are clamoring for attention.