Category Archives: Banking industry

Fintech Puts Payday Lending Old Wine in New Bottles

“Fintech” provider Lyric Financial is out to take advantage of financially unsophisticated musicians. Hipness is part of the ruse.

Too Little, Too Late Lawsuit Against Predatory Servicer Ocwen Demonstrates Failure to Address Servicing Abuses

Recidivist mortgage servicer Ocwen gets whacked by the officialdom yet again, showing how inadequate mortgage “reforms” under Obama were.

Bill Black: Dodd-Frank Was Designed to Fail – and Trump Will Make it Worse

More confirmation that Dodd-Frank was never intended to do more than make marginal changes in bank regulation to forestall real reform.

Big US Banks Make Laughable Excuses for Preserving Failed Universal Bank Model

Count on the banks to keep trotting out tired excuses for their too-big-to-faill ways.

Wells Fargo Fake Accounts Investigation Whitewashes Glaring Risk Management Failures

Wells’ law firm Sherman & Sterling issues a tough-sounding report on the fake accounts scandal that is really a coverup for its board.

Business Press Waking Up to Bank Legacy IT Risk

Reuters discusses the challenge of moving off legacy systems. While the piece is a long overdue, it still seems more than a tad optimistic.

Goodbye Fiduciary Rule? Department of Labor Delays Implementation Until June

Implementation is now delayed until June, yet the steps many firms have taken to comply suggest the fiduciary rule will survive in some form.

John Michael Greer, James Howard Kunstler, Chris Martenson, Frank Morris, and Dmitry Orlov Discuss Trump, the Inequality Taboo and Other Hot Topics

A lively panel with provocative and colorful views.

President of Richmond Fed Leaks Insider Information and Gets to Walk Free

Bill Black discusses the travesty of the kid glove treatment of former Richmond president Jeffrey Lacker in a leak of FOMC information.

Italian Banks: Not Quiet on the Eastern Front

Never before have I seen the condition of a bank’s finances (in this case liquidity) described as “hemorrhagic”. Italians beware!

Ilargi: Our Economies Run On Housing Bubbles

A look at the long-term role of home price bubbles in multiple countries.

Why Has Italy’s Banking Crisis Gone Off the Radar?

An update on Italy’s festering bank crisis.

MIchael Hudson: The Democracy Collaborative

Michael Hudson gives new riffs on his regular themes: classical economics and its perversion by Hayek, rentier capitalism, debt jubilees.

Wells Fargo Gets An Additional $110 Million Wrist Slap Over Fake Accounts Scandal

Wells will wind up paying far more in consumers via a private settlement of its fake account scandal than regulators made it cough up to them

Bill Black: Why Did Preet Bharara Refuse to Drain the Wall Street Swamp?

If you still doubt that Bharara and other federal prosecutors could have gone after bank executives but chose not to, this should settle it.