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From exposes of questionable practices at megabanks to incursions onto bank turf by nontraditional players, these are American Banker's most popular stories of 2012.
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#10: Borrower Beware: B of A Customer Repaid Her Bill Yet Faced a Collections Nightmare

A three-year legal odyssey raises questions about whether banks are pursuing meager revenues at the risk of serious errors, damage to reputations.

(Image: Thinkstock)

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#9: Walmart's New Bluebird Card Makes It a Tougher Competitor to Banks

After years of providing financial services, Walmart is becoming a more formidable bank competitor with the addition of American Express's checking account alternative, Bluebird.

(Image: Bloomberg News)

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#8: BankThink: A Toxic Culture Can Be Hazardous to Your Bank's Balance Sheet

Banks must take a stand against a shattered culture or suffer the repercussions of a fractured chain of command, reduced productivity, high employee turnover, weak customer service and poor work quality.

(Image: Thinkstock)

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#7: How a Whistleblower Halted JPMorgan Chase's Card Collection

Linda Almonte says her complaints to JPMorgan Chase bosses about shoddy card collections practices got her fired. Here's an account of how her complaints led to an OCC review and forced the bank to stop suing cardholders.

(Image: Thinkstock)

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#6: BankThink: Amex's Bluebird Is a No-Fee Checking Account, Not a Prepaid Card

If your bank is gung-ho to issue prepaid cards, think again. Focus on how to retain checking account customers, rather than emulating Green Dot and Chase and issuing fee-based "prepaid cards" as a new (already outdated) product.

(Image: Bloomberg News)

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#5: JPM Chase Quietly Halts Suits Over Consumer Debts

JPMorgan Chase has quietly ceased filing lawsuits to collect consumer debts around the nation, virtually shutting down a collections machine that as recently as nine months ago was racking up hundreds of millions of dollars in monthly judgments.

(Image: Thinkstock)

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#4: Bank of America Sold Card Debts to Collectors Despite Faulty Records

Accounts that B of A won't vouch for gain new life in the hands of collections firms.

(Image: Bloomberg News)

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#3: BankThink: How to Make Customers Love Your Bank

In order to increase loyalty, financial institutions need to embrace social media, increase value to retain existing customers and use data to design competitive rewards programs.

(Image: Thinkstock)

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#2: Big Banks Flunk OCC Risk Tests

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently graded the 19 largest banks on five factors designed to gauge how well they are being run. The results are shocking.

(Image: Thinkstock)

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#1: OCC Probing JPMorgan Chase Credit Card Collections

Robo-signed affidavits and sloppy legal work led the bank to halt court claims. The errors cast doubt on billions of dollars in judgments.

(Image: Bloomberg News)

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