Opinions

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week.

The mid-term elections next month are on track to be one of the most expensive contests to date, and the financial services industry remains a top political donor.

Instead of trying to stop companies from offering payday loans and check cashing services to lower-income households, we should encourage more competitors — including banks — to enter this space.

WASHINGTON — The Financial Action Task Force sounded an alarm Thursday that banks are overreacting in their response to recent anti-money-laundering enforcement actions by cutting off whole swaths of business.

Most of the securitized single-family market is currently exempt, but only a tiny part of the commercial equivalent is. However, nonexempt commercial will get more expensive to issue, and the single-family exemption could change.

WASHINGTON — Risks posed by rising interest rates are once again a top theme in stress test scenarios released by the Federal Reserve Board on Thursday.

The Fed's hotly-anticipated road map outlining plans to speed up the U.S. payment system will call for the creation of several industry-led task forces and recommend building a new infrastructure to facilitate real-time payments.

The Fed's hotly-anticipated road map outlining plans to speed up the U.S. payment system will call for the creation of several industry-led task forces and recommend building a new infrastructure to facilitate real-time payments.

Don Beyer, a northern Virginia car dealer who's running for office as a Democrat, is hoping to bridge the vast divide between the industry and the CFPB.

Small banks and credit unions should work together to put pressure on legislators and regulators to reduce unnecessary and cumbersome regulations.