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BankThink editors Marc Hochstein and Jeanine Skowronski recap 10 of the blog's posts they found most memorable in 2013.

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Life-Saving Remittances Smothered by Anti-Money-Laundering Laws

Author: Jon Matonis, Executive Director, Bitcoin Foundation

"Mainstream media coverage of digital currencies like Bitcoin, along with scandals at banks like HSBC and Standard Chartered, often assumes anonymous financial transactions are inherently nefarious and that financial intermediaries are morally obligated to act as undercover police. Jon Matonis challenged those usually unspoken, but deeply ingrained, assumptions in several BankThink columns this year. This one was my favorite of the bunch, because it pointed out how the compliance costs of enlisting financial institutions as deputies in the war on drugs and war on terror have unintended consequences — in this case, for Somali immigrants in the West who found it increasingly difficult to send money to their impoverished, war-torn home country."

— Marc Hochstein, Executive Editor, American Banker

Related Article: Life-Saving Remittances Smothered by Anti-Money-Laundering Laws

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Tivo for Your Finances

Author: Lauren Pollak, financial services practice lead at Jump Associates

"Pollak, as part of our series The Future Model of Banking, makes a prediction that appears pretty spot-on: Startups probably won't push banks out of the business completely. Instead, traditional financial services firms will increasingly be relegated to the role of back-end infrastructure provider."

— Jeanine Skowronski, Deputy Editor, BankThink

Related Article: Tivo for Your Finances

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Examiners' Growing Misuse of 'Reputation Risk'

Author: Peter Weinstock, Hunton & Williams LLP

"This continues the bankers-as-moral-police theme. Weinstock warned of a dangerous precedent set when examiners criticize banks for doing business with legal enterprises simply because those types of businesses may be frowned upon in the community — or in some noisy, nosy segment thereof. It could be pornography in one part of the country, tobacco or firearms in another, but the idea that an industry can be outlawed by financial regulatory fiat, rather than a democratic legislative process, is chilling. Two months after we published the piece, the FDIC issued a letter clarifying that it was OK to work with legal businesses provided banks properly manage the risk."

— Marc Hochstein, Executive Editor, American Banker

Related Article: Examiners' Growing Misuse of 'Reputation Risk'

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Are We on Our Way to Basel IV?

Author: Mayra Rodríguez Valladares, managing principal, MRV Associates

"Risk consultant Rodríguez Valladares capped off her highly informative nine-part Busy Summer in Basel series with this bold prediction: 'By the time all comments are handed in on Oct. 11 and vociferously debated, the committee may well be under way to crafting Basel IV.'"

— Jeanine Skowronski, Deputy Editor, BankThink

Related Article: Are We on Our Way to Basel IV?

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Mobile Devices Alone Won't Solve Financial Inclusion Problem

Author: Jeanine Skowronski, Deputy Editor, BankThink

"The debut of Jeanine's 'Point of Sale' column offered a welcome reality check to the technological solutionism latent in much of the discussion about financial inclusion and innovation. M-PESA's success in Kenya is an inspiring story, and many Fintech developments are exciting, but Jeanine reminded readers that human interactions still matter quite a bit for many consumers, not least of all those in underserved communities."

— Marc Hochstein, Executive Editor, American Banker

Related Article: Mobile Devices Alone Won't Solve Financial Inclusion Problem

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How Regulation Can Save Financial Innovation

Author: Eugene Ludwig, CEO, Promontory Financial Group

"It's become all too easy to argue that regulation is stifling innovation in the banking industry. The former Comptroller of the Currency deserves kudos for presenting a solid, contrarian argument on this hot button issue."

— Jeanine Skowronski, Deputy Editor, BankThink

Related Article: How Regulation Can Save Financial Innovation

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Leave Your Reputation with Your Banker

Author: Dave Birch, Founder, Consult Hyperion

"This piece, part of BankThink's series 'The Future Model of Banking,' highlighted one of the most fascinating and underreported ideas being batted around by the Fintech intelligentsia: The potential for financial institutions to morph into trusted custodians of customers' identities, and the convergence of financial banks with data banks, of personal finance with personal clouds. As some readers pointed out in the comment thread, the hardest part for the industry may be earning back consumers' trust after the financial crisis."

— Marc Hochstein, Executive Editor, American Banker

Related Article: Leave Your Reputation with Your Banker

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Five Reasons Washington Should Leave Bitcoin Alone

Author: Marc Hochstein, Executive Editor, American Banker

"I was ambivalent about this year's Bitcoin hysteria until Kevin Wack reported big banks had killed a plan to make U.S. payments faster and Marc made this astute observation: 'Bitcoin could provide some healthy competition, by demonstrating to U.S. consumers what is possible with money in the Internet age and making them clamor for something similar from their banks.'"

— Jeanine Skowronski, Deputy Editor, BankThink

Related Article: Five Reasons Washington Should Leave Bitcoin Alone

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Next Reform Target: The Banker's Brain

Author: Susan Ochs, Senior Fellow, Aspen Institute

"A salient piece of advice in here was that banks, especially big, complex banks, should encourage employees to pipe up rather than hide problems (like, cough, huge money-losing trades). 'Shoot the messenger' is never a healthy strategy. No matter the profession, we should all want to hear what we don't want to hear."

— Marc Hochstein, Executive Editor, American Banker

Related Article: "Next Reform Target: The Banker's Brain"

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How to Brand a Bank Turnaround

Author: Marty Dickinson, executive vice president, Sterling Bank of Spokane, Wash.

"I always enjoy a BankThink in which a community banker shares her thoughts on big decisions and the real-time challenges they face in the industry."

— Jeanine Skowronski, Deputy Editor, BankThink

Related Article: How to Brand a Bank Turnaround

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