Calabria's GSE effect, 2019 fintech, Kraninger's CFPB: Top stories of the week

December 14, 2018 3:20 PM

Mark Calabria, director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, March 25, 2010. Photographer: Brendan Hoffman/Bloomberg News

Brendan Hoffman/Bloomberg

What Mark Calabria at FHFA would mean for GSE reform

The administration's reported interest in having the White House aide run Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's regulator signals a focus on constraining the mortgage giants' role in the housing market.

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A contactless payment processing device, manufactured by VeriFone Systems Inc., sits beside an Apple Inc. iPhone in the robotic testing room inside the Adyen NV headquarters in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on Monday, Oct. 29, 2018. Investors have flocked to fintech company Adyen, whose shares have risen from 240 euros at the time of the IPO, to as much as 609 euros a month later. Photographer: Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg

Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg

7 (realistic) predictions about fintech in 2019

Even the best technologies take time, making it necessary to rein in expectations about what will happen and won't happen in the coming year.

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Kathy Kraninger, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) nominee for U.S. President Donald Trump, listens during a Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, July 19, 2018. Kraninger, a little-known official who has worked for the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) since March 2017, is poised to succeed her boss Mick Mulvaney as director of the CFPB. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

'I am very excited to be here': Kraninger signals new tone atop CFPB

The newly sworn-in director's first public remarks seemed to contrast with the approach of her predecessor, Mick Mulvaney, who at times questioned the role of the agency.

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What major change in lease accounting means for banks

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is requiring all companies to record leases for property and equipment on their balance sheets. Here's how that revision could affect banks' loan decisions — and their own capital ratios.

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Nobody saw this bank deal coming

When Trinity Capital in New Mexico put itself up for sale last summer, it reached out to several local banks to gauge their interest. Then came a surprise offer from a suitor based a thousand miles away.

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Helping business associates succeed (image showing hand of large executive holding a walkway for a much smaller executive).

They report to you. You work for them.

The most important part of being a successful manager is ensuring your direct reports are succeeding.

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Survey asking consumers how likely they would be to consider banking with an Amazon, Facebook or Google if they could

How banks could fend off Amazon and Facebook

Nearly 60% of people thinking about switching banks would be open to banking with a big tech company if they ever get that option. Cash incentives or existing savings accounts are big factors in consumer decisions — and things that banks could keep in mind in their efforts to recruit or retain customers.

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Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, not pictured, in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, D.C, U.S., on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Trump plans to withdraw the U.S. from a treaty that gives Chinese companies discounted shipping rates for small packages sent to American consumers, another escalation of his economic confrontation of Beijing. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Mick Mulvaney's last move at CFPB aims to help fintechs

The agency's departing acting director filed a proposal Monday for a new sandbox that would grant firms a legal safe harbor and "exemptive relief" from enforcement.

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CIT spruces up brand in bid for more household deposits

It's still primarily a commercial bank, but the branding campaign — CIT's first in a dozen years — is designed to appeal to the group driving its torrid deposit growth: retail savers.

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Manafort, Cohen cases highlight banks' vulnerability to fraud

Time and again, two former associates of President Trump deceived banks in connection with loan applications. Their wealth, proximity to power and willingness to tell big lies all appear to have helped them get away with brazen schemes.

(Full story here.)