'This Is Just Creepy': Comments of the Week

July 19, 2013 8:22 AM

American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. As excerpted from the Comments sections of AmericanBanker.com articles.

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On Zions Bank using big data in its marketing campaigns:

"Am I the only one who thinks this is just creepy?"

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On future models of banking requiring a Hippocratic oath-level of trust:

"Relating banking to healthcare is probably not the best thing to do right now With the pay-per-service attitude, I would not say my relationship with my doctor is that great."

On future models of banking requiring a Hippocratic oath-level of trust:

"There are four million or so Americans (or former customers) who will never really trust the banks, ever."

On future models of banking requiring a Hippocratic oath-level of trust:

"People must now trust the individual banker, not the institution."

On alternative currencies threatening banks' hold over the payments business:

"Bitcoin, like other technologies around payments innovation and design improvements in customer experience today, have been born out of need to transact faster and across multiple geographies without arbitrary constraints that are designed to protect incumbents."

Related Article: Banks Get One Last Mulligan in Payments

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On Senate bill that would effectively restore Glass-Steagall:

"Prohibition can be very effective when it becomes very clear that regulation has been and continued to be very ineffective."

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On the complexity of bank reserve requirements:

"As a banker I find that we tend to complicate so many of these issues. Thirty years ago, if you had a watch loan, you held 5% in reserve and, if it was substandard, you held 15%. Amazing how these numbers still work without going through all the gyrations."

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On a survey that found big banks will lose deposits and revenue as a result of charging fees:

"If banks were to think as creatively about providing non-traditional services that their customers will happily pay for instead of trying to creatively slap a new fee on an old product with no fair value exchange customers will gladly pay for these services."

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On Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's statement that any housing finance reform plan must be clear about the government's role:

"The current chairman of the Federal Reserve arguing that the limits to any potential taxpayer bailout be spelled out in advance, now that's rich!"

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On the effects of new capital requirements and regulations:

"Higher capital means less return on capital if all else stays the same Add in mandates in the form of ever more constraining regulations and what results is a business so hobbled that it can't trot, let alone gallop."

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On the argument that capital requirements hobble banks:

"If banking cannot gallop leveraging 33-to-1, which is what a leverage ratio of 3% implies, then perhaps it should not be allowed to trot."

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On the idea that regulators' obsession with capital overshadows other key reforms:

"I'd rather trade off costly regulation for higher capital any day."

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