Links in “Banks”

ACA, the largest trade group for the credit and collection industry, issued a statement that the federal agencies' efforts to regulate litigation activities of lawyers to recover unpaid debt would be a violation of the right to petition for redress under the First Amendment. "There is absolutely no basis for executive-branch regulators (or any actors in the executive or legislative branch)... to intrude themselves into litigation between private parties for which a judge is already presiding." [10/15/14]

Former British banker says the social contract between the banking system and society is fundamentally broken. There is resentment against the banking system on a societal scale. Here are his ideas for what can be done to give everyone a stake in the financial system. [10/15/14]

While financial institutions deal more with money than with morals, there are several mistakes with currency transaction reports that can reflect unfavorably on your entire BSA program. Take a look at this list to see if your institution is guilty of one or more of these “deadly CTR sins,” and find out what is needed for penitence. [10/14/14]

ABA sends a petition to the FCC requesting an exemption from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act's restrictions on automated calls to mobile devices, such as calls informing consumers of potential fraud detected on their account or potential breaches of the consumer's personal information. [10/14/14]

Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences goes to a Frenchman for his work on how governments can better regulate industries, including banking. Winner Jean Tirole says it takes strong government to enforce regulations, but the regulations have to be "light enough not to kill entrepreneurship." [10/14/14]

Research company sends mystery shoppers into six banks and finds that two-thirds of the time, consumers come away not understanding credit card terms. [10/14/14]

While most look at hiring more staff as the answer to increasing compliance demands, others have taken a different road: hiring software programmers to automate the work. (We might suggest a third alternative, but we get what the article is saying.) [10/13/14]

Dairy Queen is the latest retailer to admit that it has been the subject of a data breach due to the Backoff malware. While the breach that occurred between August and October of this year appears to have affected 396 stores, the CEO reports that to date they have no evidence that any customer information has been compromised. [10/13/14]

Jim Nussle, CUNA CEO, believes that credit unions and banks working together to promote certain legislative efforts could be key to moving things forward. He’s scheduled a meeting with the CEO of the Community Bankers of America Association to see if they can identify some common ground. [10/13/14]

A look at how a Russian-speaking group managed to get the credentials for 800,000 online banking accounts. [10/13/14]