Slideshow

'Not a good omen for the industry': Comments of the week

November 8, 2018 10:00 PM

Readers sound off on the 2018 midterm election results, OCC's Otting defending his agency's right to charter fintechs, and predictions the plastic credit card is nearly dead.

Representative Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California and ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, questions witnesses during a hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2017. The hearing was titled Examining the Equifax Data Breach. Equifax Inc., already reeling from American probes into the loss of data on 145.5 million customers in a computer hack, will face an investigation in the U.K., where 694,000 consumers had information stolen. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

On Rep. Maxine Waters leading the House Financial Services Committee next year:

"Waters has made it clear that it is time for 'paybacks.' Not a good omen for the industry."

Related: Should industry fear Waters-led banking panel?

Signage advertising short-term loans stands in front of stores in Birmingham, Alabama, U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015. In Alabama, the sixth-poorest state, with one of the highest concentrations of lenders, advocates are trying to curb payday and title loans, a confrontation that clergy cast as God versus greed. They have been stymied by an industry that metamorphoses to escape regulation, showers lawmakers with donations, packs hearings with lobbyists and has even fought a common database meant to enforce a $500 limit in loans. Photographer: Gary Tramontina/Bloomberg

Gary Tramontina/Bloomberg

On Colorado's passage of a cap on interest rates at 36%:

"Goodbye pay day loans, goodbye overdraft programs. Pretty soon, consumers will end up right where advocacy groups are putting them - with zero options."

Related: Colorado voters approve 36% interest cap on payday loans

Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting

Joseph Otting, comptroller of the U.S. currency, speaks during a Senate Banking Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2018. The hearing focused on implementation of a new law easing Dodd-Frank Act rules on community and midsize banks. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

On whether the OCC has the legal authority to issue a charter to fintech firms:

"Otting is absolutely right... the OCC can issue a charter to anyone that is "in the business of banking." And therein lies his problem. The BHC of 1956 defines a bank as any "depository financial institution that accepts checking accounts or makes commercial loans"... whose deposits are federally insured. Will take some very clever lawyering, or some strange jurisprudence, to get around that plain language."

Related: Fintechs interested in OCC charter despite lawsuits: Otting

The Amazon.com Inc. application icon is displayed on an Apple Inc. iPhone in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, Dec. 5, 2016. Amazon.com unveiled a new security tool for cloud customers last week, part of a slew of product announcements designed to fend off competition from Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc.'s Google and others in the fast-growing cloud computing market. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

On concerns that some community bankers underestimate the threats to small-business lending from tech firms and others:

"The days of taking 2 - 4 weeks to pour over the data, crunch the numbers and write a 10 page loan presentation before waiting for the next available loan committee meeting (or meetings in many cases as loans get bumped up through layers of approval) are drawing to a close. Some people will still be able to operate that way, but only the ones who have no competition (which means no internet)"

Related: Window may be closing for small banks to compete for small business

Mick Mulvaney, director of OMB and acting CFPB director

Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), listens during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Jan. 19, 2018. Federal government funding runs out at midnight Friday. Legislation to extend the deadline passed the House on Thursday and is set for a showdown in the Senate Friday, in which Democrats are poised to block the bill. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

On a report concluding that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has the legal authority to examine firms for compliance with the Military Lending Act, released after the agency said it would be halting such exams:

"I am a stickler for process. DoD is not a regulator on financial services. This area of law/regulation should be housed within the purview of the CFPB. The MLA's primary goal was to reduce servicemembers debt load. When you look the data that has been collected credit card debt on average was $21K and the last report indicated that it was higher. We need principled based rules and more study on the effects of regulation, we owe that our servicemembers."

Related: Consumer group report disputes CFPB policy on military lending exams

Online lending image. Keyboard with big key that says "loans"

Inscription on the Blue Keyboard Enter Button, for Loans Concept. High Quality Render of a Aluminum Keyboard Key. The Button is Blue in Color and there is Message Loans on It. 3D.

Tashatuvango/tashatuvango - stock.adobe.com

On a look at the challenges facing policymakers in reforming the Community Reinvestment Act, including reevaluating how to define geographic assessment areas in the era of online banking:

"I guess the government is not aware that there are internet banks that do not have an assessment area and most regional banks are closing branches because--people do business on their mobile devices. CRA is being enforced in a much different way than the original law. If we assume the government is going to require bad investments as a price for their FDIC insurance, then I suggest they just require a certain percent of their earnings go to community development and income housing."

Related: Can CRA be modernized and still serve its original purpose?

Margaret Keane, president and CEO of Synchrony Financial

Laura Barisonzi

On Synchrony Financial CEO Margaret Keane suggesting plastic cards could fall out of disuse within the next five years:

"Predictions of the cashless society and then the checkless society were popular in the 1980s. Both are still in use today. Plastic is probably here to stay for the foreseeable future, certainly for more than five years from now."

Related: Plastic cards will be gone in five years: Synchrony CEO

Welcome to Maine, "The Way Life Should Be"

Joseph Sohm/spiritofamerica - stock.adobe.com

On the creation of a credit union for farmers in Maine:

"Another taxpayer subsidized entity to compete with the other taxpayer subsidized entities serving this sector. If bankers thought this was a good idea and there was an unmet need, they would have been lined up at the door. Fast forward a couple years to see what gets charged off."

Related: Proposed Maine credit union to focus on farmers