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'The whole situation is frustrating': Comments of the week

ByRachel Witkowski
August 8, 2019 9:30 PM

Readers react to the Fed's lengthy plan for a real-time payments system and Fifth Third's minimum wage increase, jab at Sen. Warren's absence on the Senate Banking Committee and more.

Jerome Powell, Randal Quarles, Lael Brainard
Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, speaks during a Federal Reserve Board meeting in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, April 8, 2019. The Federal Reserve Board today is considering new rules governing the oversight of foreign banks. Powell said the Fed wants foreign lenders treated similarly to U.S. banks. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
On disagreements between Federal Reserve Board members over its move to launch a real-time payments system:

"The whole situation is frustrating. The Fed has been making noise of the need for the U.S. to solve this problem for years . . . Only then with the cry from the small banks did the Fed determine it would have to build its own system, now years late."

Related: Is Fed vote on real-time payments a sign of a wider split?
Fast payments, real-time payments, RTP, e-money
Electronic remittance through the Internet
Yakobchuk/V. Yakobchuk - stock.adobe.com
On the Fed's lengthy plan to launch a real-time payments system by 2024:

"So, we get another five years of uncertainty as we wait for the Fed to deliver."

Related: Fed plans to launch real-time payment service by 2024
Employees
vege/vegefox.com - stock.adobe.com
On Fifth Third Bancorp joining other major U.S. banks in raising its minimum wage:

"Pay rates are going to go up across the banking industry because the jobs branch bankers are doing are going to require higher levels of aptitude and ability . . . but it is headcount reduction, changes in the scopes of jobs and record-low unemployment in most markets that are driving it."

Related: Fifth Third is latest bank to raise its minimum wage
deposits.jpeg
paper deposit slip, spare change and pen over wood background
R MACKAY - stock.adobe.com
On banks feeling net interest margin pressure from the recent Fed rate cut, causing them to lower the interest paid on deposit:

"What isn't mentioned is that most banks didn't increase deposit rates as the Fed raised short-term interest rates over the last several years. While they enjoyed (temporarily) higher net interest margins, deposit costs can't come down much from already low levels."

Related: Banks brace for more margin tightening despite lower funding costs
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and a 2020 presidential candidate, speaks during the National Forum on Wages and Working People in Las Vegas on April 27, 2019.
On Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren's muted presence at the Senate Banking Committee as she runs in the 2020 presidential campaign:

"Warren, a veritable wellspring of bad ideas, is now taking her anti-business biases and fertile imagination into the broader arena of a presidential race. Let us pray."

Related: 2020 race pulls Warren away from Senate Banking
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts and 2020 presidential candidate, speaks during Jim Clyburn's World Famous Fish Fry event in Columbia, South Carolina, U.S., on Friday, June 21, 2019. Joe Biden is trying to make amends after a misstep over his history of working alongside segregationist senators as he heads for a weekend of campaign events in South Carolina, where African-American voters are crucial to victory in the state's Democratic primary. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg
Al Drago/Bloomberg
Another reader responds to Warren being pulled away from the Senate Banking Committee to run a presidential campaign:

"Warren's too busy working on her campaign strategy . . . Top the strategy with messaging that the economy/capitalism only works for millionaires and billionaires. No wonder she can't make the meetings."

Related: 2020 race pulls Warren away from Senate Banking
artificial-intel.jpeg
Artificial intelligence Machine Learning Business Internet Technology Concept.
Sikov - stock.adobe.com
On more fintechs using alternative data like cash-flow analysis as a top underwriting tool:

"The process of putting new ideas into regulatory compliance is often lengthy and diligent. This data is beneficial for lenders and it is important to acknowledge the weaker parts of an otherwise solid solution."

Related: Online lenders make case for cash-flow data while acknowledging pitfalls
Rachel Witkowski
Tech reporter, Financial Planning
Payments Faster payments Real-time payments Minimum wage Industry salaries Net interest margin Deposits Interest rates Fintech Elizabeth Warren Federal Reserve Fifth Third Bancorp
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