'Stay Classy, Jamie Dimon': Comments of the Week
April 10, 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 from our social media platforms.
Image: Fotolia
On whether "permissioned" distributed ledgers similar to Bitcoin will have more commercial appeal than Bitcoin itself:
"It will be another 5-10 years before banks roll out their Frankenstein ledgers and during that time Bitcoin will keep growing. Beyond that, poor management, selective policy enforcement, and arbitrary rules of these Frankenstein ledgers will simply drive users to use permissionless ledgers where they don't have to tiptoe around trusted institutions."
Related Article:
Image: Fotolia
On the suggestion that banks can pick and choose the elements of cryptocurrency technology most applicable to their business:
"I'd like to see them cherry-pick the hash power of the miners, which dwarfs anything any single organization has access to simply by virtue of being decentralized." (via Reddit ):
Related Article:
Image: Fotolia
On whether banks would be willing to take the perceived risk of sending transactions via the Bitcoin blockchain:
"There has never been a situation in which a financial institution will entrust a significant amount of value to the blockchain. No way. No how. Authenticated (permissioned) validation is the way to go."
Related Article:
Summing up community bankers' reaction to the JPMorgan Chase CEO's comments about the risks inherent in small banks:
"You stay classy, Jamie Dimon." (via Twitter )
Related Article:
Image: Bloomberg News
In response to Dimon's claim that many small banks failed during the crisis while many larger banks experienced smooth sailing:
"Small community banks suffered consequences of the mortgage/securities fraud & resulting economic crisis caused by megabanks. Also, small and community banks are by definition not systemic. If they make bad decisions, they own it. Taxpayers are not on the hook for it." (via Twitter )
Related Article:
Image: iStock
On whether JPMorgan Chase should get credit for helping to fund the closure of failed community banks:
"Citing how much Chase paid into the FDIC to help fund the resolution of community banks damaged by the financial crisis precipitated by the too big to behave banks, Mr. Dimon sounds like an arsonist who tries to defend himself at his trial by telling the judge how much he contributed to the local fire department."
Related Article:
Image: Fotolia
Casting doubt on the prospects for newly chartered industrial loan companies:
The banking industry "lives in mortal fear of the low-cost competitive advantage possessed by entities like Wal-Mart as much as it does the tax-exempt status of credit unions.
Critics see those concerns as still being the insurmountable roadblock to a resurgence of new ILCs that are FDIC-insured." (via Bank Lawyer's Blog )
Related Article:
Image: Bloomberg News
On the idea that nonbank mortgage lenders pose more risk to the housing market than banks because they are subject to less oversight:
"Regulators caused the 'problem' by punishing commercial banks excessively, but now the experts complain because nonbanks, which are far more efficient than banks, comprise the majority of the seller/servicers in the FHA market. You got what you wished for folks, so deal with it."
Related Article:
Image: Fotolia
On whether it's worth banks' while to pursue millennial customers when they tend to have low account balances and change banks frequently:
"Sadly, they very well may close their bank accounts more frequently than people over the age of 50 and are more likely to move their relationship elsewhere, but isn't is entirely plausible that people move their accounts because they aren't getting what they need?"
Related Article:
Image: Fotolia
On whether banks can afford to ignore millennials in the present in the hopes of getting their business when they've become more profitable customers:
"Sooo, ignore customers who aren't profitable right now
and then magically get them when they are older and
what
ready to give up the convenience of the way they bank, and where they bank, and want to apparently start visiting your branches? Curious."
Related Article:
Image: Fotolia
On the argument that banks should reconsider the emphasis they place on mobile options, since many customers prefer to use laptops for longer, more complicated financial transactions:
"I do not think that is what the data suggests. I think the data is reflecting poor bank mobile user interfaces and user experiences."
Related Article:
Image: Fotolia
On New York banking lobbies' opposition to a proposal that would allow thrifts to accept municipal deposits, since credit unions as well as banks would benefit:
"By all means, let's not let the public interest get in the way of self-serving competitive concerns."
Related Article:
Image: iStock
