Opinions

Regulators and governments worldwide have started a grand experiment to organize a bar code-like identifier for financial market participants. But once-innovative financial utilities may prevent this endeavor from succeeding.

The TV show Parks and Recreation used the made-up bailout of a fictional video rental store to satirize the government's response to the 2008 financial crisis.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is preparing to crack down on interest rate markups that automobile dealers add onto the cost of car loans, potentially threatening one of the few bright spots for bank lending of late.

Regulators are not in the bank on a day-to-day basis; usually they can only judge actions after the fact and without all of the relevant information and considerations.

Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf said banks are no longer "too big to fail," and admonished fellow bankers to accept the existence of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Weve, a joint venture between the UK's three largest telcos, has chosen The Logic Group to provide technology to test a loyalty and coupon program.

The Independent Community Bankers of America has elected its executive committee for the next year.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed adding nonbank student loan servicers, which account for over 70% of the student loan market, to its supervision program.

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations' probe into the JPMorgan Chase "London Whale" trading debacle provides a harsh critique of bank misbehavior, but also raises critical questions about the regulators trained to police it.

While many bankers cite new regulations or the sluggish economy as their primary challenges, PNC's CEO-in-waiting said that an even bigger hurdle could be figuring out how to charge customers for products and services that banks currently give away for free.