Like 'Putting Email Kiosks in Post Offices': Comments of the Week
November 20, 2015 7:30 AM
American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. Comments are excerpted from reader response sections of AmericanBanker.com articles and our social media platforms.
On a story about a bank updating its branch to include, among other things, video technology:
"Installing video technology in bank branches is like putting email kiosks in post offices. Why would a consumer want to travel to the bank's location to conduct remote transactions?"
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Reacting to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's upcoming rules on overdraft fees:
"According to the CFPB, the best way to keep the consumer from drowning is not teaching her to swim, but by not letting her get in the pool."
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On why banks get a bad rap for charging overdraft fees:
"Banks are valuable and necessary to all businesses. There is one little thing that makes them look like bandits to the mathematically-uninformed
overdrafts"
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On the potential that terrorists may be using bitcoin as a funding device (via <a href="https://twitter.com/lamassubtc/status/666589912586678272" target="_blank">Twitter</a>):
"If they're using Bitcoin it isn't because it's untraceable (it isn't), but rather because transactions can't be stopped."
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A reader's response meant to illustrate just how hard it is for banks to assess capital strength via risk modeling:
"It ranks right up there with assessing earth's atmosphere in an attempt to use discrete weather events as evidence of climate change."
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A retort to an op-ed on what banks can learn from the automotive industry's quality issues:
"Banks have a bigger problem than letting errors in at the beginning of their 'manufacturing' process. Unlike the automotive industry, banks do not have a supply chain that makes consistent component 'parts' that go into the final product."
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In response to a marketplace lender's suggestions on how the government can spur innovation in the sector:
"I suggest if marketplace lenders want the same benefits as traditional bankers in terms of low cost funding that they obtain a commercial banking charter. In return for the 'benefits,' they can also comply with the mountains of regulations (including CRA) and joys of dealing with the prudential regulators."
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A reaction to the idea of converting the leadership structure of the CFPB into a commission rather than a single director:
"Unless and until those tasked with enforcing any set of market rules are willing and capable of maintaining order without succumbing to the siren call of gold and power, the directorship is still our best hope."
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A reader agreeing with an op-ed contributor's assessment of the CFPB:
"The CFPB is a rogue agency without congressional accountability and the worst is yet to come."
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