Comments of the Year
January 2, 2013 1:12 AM
We revisit some of the best comments readers posted to AmericanBanker.com and BankThink.com in 2012.
On how banks can reinvent themselves:
"Consumers have long trusted banks to hold their money, so why not trust them to hold other information as well — a digital safe deposit box."
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On finding the optimal scale:
"I never met a bank CEO who thought his company was big enough."
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On the romanticizing of Glass-Steagall:
"Those who argue that Glass-Steagall should be reinstated because the nation prospered when it was in effect forget or didn't learn the post hoc fallacy. Because A happens and then B happens does not establish or show in any way that A caused B. Actual cause and effect must be shown. How many standalone banks failed during that period?
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On why requiring big banks to compartmentalize themselves would do no good:
"Putting the cookies in the cupboard never keeps the kids out of them … cookies kept at another house, now that works."
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On delays in implementing Dodd-Frank:
"Debates over issues like Basel III, Volcker Rule and living wills are all diversions in which bank lobbyists seek to exhaust reformers from making any changes that might restrict the megabanks' ability to pillage the global financial markets."
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On the regulatory burden for small banks:
"Even though community banks are excluded by size from much of Dodd-Frank, they will still be expected to meet most all of the same standards, limitations and requirements of the bigger banks."
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On whether Washington is trying to eliminate community banks:
"We welcome our megabank overlords. After all, we paid for them."
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On dealing with Dodd-Frank:
"Let's get on the other side of this and start representing our cause. We need relief from Dodd-Frank, not [a] prophecy of doom."
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On the CFPB's Public Complaint Database:
"This process as now defined reminds me of a trial where the plaintiff (complainant) is allowed to say anything they want to the jury as allowed by the judge (CFPB) and the defendant (financial institution) has to go whisper their full facts to the judge but are limited in their response to the jury."
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On the CFPB's practice of bringing enforcement attorneys to bank exams:
"How would you feel if you were a patient in the hospital and your Doctor showed up with the undertaker?"
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On how the CFPB can promote financial innovation:
"Get … out of the way. Bureaucracy is the antithesis of entrepreneurialism."
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On Elizabeth Warren's role in creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:
"If you don't want Dodd-Frank and [the] CFPB, conduct business in a way that doesn't make them absolutely necessary."
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(Image: Bloomberg News)
On fixing the banking industry's reputation:
"Propaganda campaigns will only increase the public's distrust. (Who says the oil industry repaired its image?)"
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(Image: Bloomberg News)
On ING Bank's $619 million fine for violating economic sanctions:
"Keep this enforcement action in mind when reading articles about the supposed 'high risk' of money laundering represented by check cashing outlets and prepaid cards. A $25,000 money transfer at a money center bank doesn't raise an eyebrow. Apparently, neither do multi-million dollar transfers. But, a $2,500 transfer at a check cashing locations attracts everyone's attention."
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On JPMorgan Chase's trading loss:
"Rogue trading is not something that happens TO banks. It is something banks ALLOW. Doesn't matter if it's intentional or unintentional. Sgt. Schultz defense is unacceptable."
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On the hit to Jamie Dimon's image:
"Dimon has been the confident face of a bank that has escaped the scrutiny and criticism his fellow systemically important banks have already faced. Forgive some of us from delighting in the fact that he now has to answer for many of the same weaknesses they have."
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(Image: Bloomberg News)
On the London traders for JPMorgan's chief investment office:
"We need to think long and hard about allowing offshore trading desks that do not have the same rules as domestic desks."
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On whether bank examiners should be required to make a lifetime commitment:
"You would not ask an intern at a hospital to make a commitment never to go into private practice."
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On two former Wamu executives eyeing a return to mortgage lending:
"If you could rob a convenience store of $1,000 and, when you were caught, get away with an apology and paying $100, would you do it again?"
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On StanChart's $340 million money-laundering settlement:
"The resolution of this affair strikes me as a variant of the TBTF thinking regulators seem unable to shake. Smaller players would never get the chance to pay their way out of a mess half as ugly."
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(Image: Bloomberg News)
On Libor-rigging:
"Self-regulation is an oxymoron, and those who think not are simply oxymorons sans 'oxy'."
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On the reach of social media:
"I read this article as a result of a Twitter feed."
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