All Blog Entries

May 01

2010

Choices amid the babble

Posted by Bill Streeter in Editors Column

With all the palaver and outright rubbish emanating from Washington, the media, and the web about banking these days, there is a crying need, and golden opportunity, to be a voice of reason and honesty in your own sphere. Not voice only, but also a choice of reason and honesty.

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Apr 01

2010

Change is difficult, but change is good

Posted by Bill Streeter in Editors Column

Welcome to the new ABA Banking Journal. We especially welcome those readers of Community Banker magazine who have not heretofore been familiar with ABA Banking Journal. The truth is, regular readers and new readers are looking at a publication that has substantially changed. What you have is the best of both of ABA’s general circulation monthly magazines—each of which had a rich and long-standing tradition.

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Mar 01

2010

One way to rebuild trust

Posted by Bill Streeter in Editors Column

A great many banks and savings institutions rightfully feel that the ignominy heaped upon the industry by an angry Congress and its media cohorts is not justified by anything they did. Feeling abused, however, won’t make the tarnish go away.

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Feb 01

2010

Another type of â€œtraditionalâ€

Posted by Bill Streeter in Editors Column

There’s been a reaffirmation of late of the concept of traditional banking. While there’s no official definition of that term, our sense is that it is usually taken to mean the business of raising deposits and using them to make loans. As many people have observed, banking is a fairly simple business. Whether a person is any good at it depends largely on how carefully they lend out the money and how well they manage their cost of funds and operating expenses. It’s more complex in practice, naturally. (The article on interest rate risk, p.28, makes that clear.)

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Dec 31

2009

As the second half begins

Posted by Bill Streeter in Editors Column

For more than a year the banking industry has faced the risk that its very future would be hijacked by the political reaction to the events of 2007-8. That the reaction was coming was certain. That something was needed was clear. You can’t come to the brink of financial and economic meltdown and not need changes.

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Dec 01

2009

Policy by horror story (Good stories needed)

Posted by Bill Streeter in Editors Column

“I took my in-laws out for a holiday brunch and put it on my debit card. Thank God my bank had overdraft protection, because I had forgotten to transfer in money to cover the meal!”

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Nov 01

2009

A window opens

Posted by Bill Streeter in Editors Column

Credit problems always develop in an economic downturn. If every bank advanced money only to those borrowers who they felt would remain unscathed through the worst-case scenario, the economy would shrink to levels of 30 years ago.

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Oct 01

2009

Watch out for the little guys

Posted by Bill Streeter in Editors Column

There’s a tendency in some circles to adopt a tone of condescension in speaking about community banks; the equivalent of the owner of a big dog patting a little dog on the head, saying, “There’s a nice a little dog.

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Sep 01

2009

Please, no more â€œczarsâ€

Posted by Bill Streeter in Editors Column

“Excessive compensation” is a close cousin to “obscene profits.” Neither is realistically definable. They are legitimate terms. It just depends which side of the paycheck you’re on.

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Aug 01

2009

Obama plan wonâ€™t vacation

Posted by Bill Streeter in Editors Column

In the closing weeks of July, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank tipped his hat to the industry by acknowledging at a press conference that the strength of the banking industry’s opposition to the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency, a major component of the Obama Administration’s massive regulatory restructuring plan, had surprised him. He postponed markup of the CFPA legislation until September, in part to allow supporters of the new agency time to counter bankers’ strong objections.

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