Comments of the Week: Dec. 31 - Jan. 4
January 4, 2013 8:00 AM
On CFPB employees complaining about their new office setting:
"CFPB staff needs to remember that they are 'public servants' spending the taxpayers' money. The lawyers can always go to the 'too big to fail' banks or Wall Street firms if they want nice plush offices -- now that would be irony."Related Article: Reflecting 'Principles,' CFPB Digs to Have Few Doors, Walls (Image: Shutterstock )
On CFPB employees complaining about their new office setting:
"Unfortunately, a 'new age commune' probably reflects the prevailing attitude of the agency."Related Article: Reflecting 'Principles,' CFPB Digs to Have Few Doors, Walls (Image: Shutterstock )
On whether Brian Moynihan can run B of A in a growth environment:
"The answer is not always to switch the guy at the top. Moynihan is capable of wearing many hats and he has many hats available in his closet."Related Article: Can Brian Moynihan Survive Long Enough to Fix B of A? (Image: Bloomberg News)
On overhauling risk management at financial institutions:
"Here's a novel idea: Banks could learn underwriting and lend."Related Article: What If CRO Meant 'Chief Revenue Officer'? (Image: Shutterstock )
On whether CRO should stand for 'Chief Revenue Officer':
"The goals for both Marketing/Business management and Risk are clearly the same. The only thing that needs to be separated out is the Sales or Distribution function."Related Article: What If CRO Meant 'Chief Revenue Officer'? (Image: Shutterstock )
On JPMorgan Chase acquiring the merchant offer startup Bloomspot:
"Watch out Citi, Wells Fargo, US Bank and others. Chase is going to eat your lunch and steal your retail and business customers with this value proposition."Related Article: Chase to Enter Merchant Offer Fray with Bloomspot Acquisition (Image: Shutterstock )
On JPMorgan Chase acquiring merchant offer startup Bloomspot:
"Great move by Chase. Unfortunately, they paid way too much for this acquisition. Bloomspot's offers are way too few, way too similar and way too high-end to warrant this price."Related Article: Chase to Enter Merchant Offer Fray with Bloomspot Acquisition (Image: Shutterstock )
On whether high customer service scores indicate fairness:
"Profit and loss - and for a bank that means long-term profit/loss evaluations - remain the best measure of how well a company in the business of serving customers is doing."Related Article: Stop Assuming Your Good Customer Satisfaction Scores Indicate Fairness (Image: Shutterstock )
On FDIC personnel:
"It is too bad for community banks that the Senate did not go back to the Administration and tell them that Martin Gruenberg and Thomas Hoenig would be approved for the FDIC, but only if the positions they would occupy were reversed. As it stands now, the agency is headed by a man who thinks helping community banks is explaining the examination process."Related Article: FDIC Releases Plan to Bolster Community Banks (Image: Bloomberg News)
On Barney Frank receiving American Banker's Lifetime Achievement Award:
"Create a crisis, place the blame elsewhere and generate a raft of new regulations and a new government bureau to oversee them. That deserves some kind of award, but not the one you gave him."Related Article: Lifetime Achievement: Barney Frank (Image: Bloomberg News)
On Barney Frank's stance on housing issues:
"The root of the problem is that politicians confuse 'shelter' with housing, and then see mortgage finance as a tool to address shelter issues."Related Article: Politics, Banking and Congressional Gridlock: A Q&A with Barney Frank (Image: Shutterstock )
On the case against breaking up big banks:
"Shouldn't we want to preserve the benefits of being big, global and diversified if society can manage their risk exposures and support their stabilizing effects on economic order? We will surely pull the wrong brick or tug the wrong pipe and topple the whole edifice. Better to place a bet on slowly reengineering 'too-big-to-fail' institutions rather than on their failure."Related Article: Regulators, Demand Credible Living Wills Now - Not 'Ultimately (Image: Shutterstock )
