Kevin Funnell's Profile

Last week, an article by Andy Peters in the American Banker hit a nerve. It profiled a California bank that had tried to make small dollar loans work as an alternative to payday lending, but had decided to give up... Continue reading

Posted 3 days ago at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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Waters Attacked By Sudden Fit Of Reason

This past weekend, The New York Times set out to rehabilitate in the minds of community bankers the image of a woman whose performance in a congressional hearing was once described by The Atlantic's Megan McArdle as "like watching your... Continue reading

Posted 4 days ago at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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Camden Fine Fires Off A Fine Salvo

In recent opinion piece for Bloomberg News, ICBA CEO Camden Fine was in fine fettle, ranting about his favorite topic: new regulatory burdens are strangling community while the largest banks are doing just fine, thank you very much. Among his... Continue reading

Posted 6 days ago at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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Charlie Munger: A Favorite Curmudgeon

Warren Buffet's long-time running buddy, Charlie Munger, agrees with Cam Fine about one thing: it's time to break up (or at least "simplify") the big banks. In an interview with CNN at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting, Munger, who is Warren... Continue reading

Posted May 9, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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The OCC Takes A Body Shot

Housing Wire's Jacob Gaffney was kind enough to turn readers on to a recent snark-fest by John Stewart, in which he turned the heat up on both MERS and the OCC. It's a rare day when you have an audience... Continue reading

Posted May 8, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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A New Approach To Compliance

Steve Van Beek, NAFCU's Director of Regulatory Compliance, has a dynamite article in the latest issue of The Federal Credit Union, that community banks, as well as credit unions, would do well to heed. In addition to noting the obvious... Continue reading

Posted May 6, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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The CU-Bank War Is Getting Ugly

Crying "The Time Is Right To Tax," commercial bankers are upping the thermostat on state and federal regulators to "level the playing field" by eliminating the tax exempt status of credit unions. According to the ABA Banking Journal, in a... Continue reading

Posted May 5, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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Community Bank Consolidation: Over-Hyped?

I've been traveling on business this week and have missed posting the past couple of days, but I couldn't let the week end without commenting on a story in yesterday's American Banker, the tone, and much of the substance, of... Continue reading

Posted May 2, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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A Change of Policy, But Only in Two States

While the epic "Yo Mamma" wars between banks and credit unions have been well-documented (and often lamented) on this blog, I have no explanation for the recent activities of Chase Bank and Huntington Bank, as outlined in a recent article... Continue reading

Posted Apr 29, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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A Bad Idea That Refuses To Die

Even though municipalities like San Bernardino have come to their senses and dropped a make-your-investment-banker-rich-quick scheme to seize underwater mortgages from mortgage lenders and wrote down the principal balances, the scheme refuses to completely die. I guess we'll have to... Continue reading

Posted Apr 28, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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Gimme A Break! Nobody Actually Believed Us!

To answer a reader's question, yes, I did get a kick out of the argument by S&P's lawyers (paid subscription required) that statements by S&P "about independence and objectivity are 'puffery' and were never meant to be taken at face... Continue reading

Posted Apr 24, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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FDIC's Take On FFIEC's Social Media Guidance

I ran across an interview recently that the FDIC's Elizabeth Khalil gave to InfoSecurity's Tracy Kitten about the FFIEC's proposed guidance on social media. Among my take-aways are the following: The push for the guidance came from smaller banks that... Continue reading

Posted Apr 22, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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Florida Continues To Pummel Stern

Nearly two years ago, we noted that the Florida Bar had filed a complaint against former Florida Foreclosure King David J. Stern over alleged ethical lapses related to the meltdown of his foreclosure mill firm in the wake of a... Continue reading

Posted Apr 21, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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Scapegoating 101

The 20/20 hindsight afforded members of Congress when judging the alleged failures of the independent foreclosure reviews that we discussed last night also graces the peepers of the Government Accountability Office. The independent foreclosure reviews abruptly ended by regulators in... Continue reading

Posted Apr 17, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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Second-Guessing the Second Guessers

Every once in awhile, the blustering blunderbuss known as Senator Liz ("She-Reams-For-Sport") Warren fires a scattershot salvo that strikes a worthy target. You know, like when Dick Cheney shot a lawyer in the face. The other day, Princess Rides-Bankers-Like-A-Burro was... Continue reading

Posted Apr 16, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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Dancing With The Bear: The Softshoe Shuffle Continues

My posts concerning former bank CEO Patrick Adams and his long, hard, expensive fight to clear his name encouraged one reader to send me a copy of a decision from a couple of months ago that involved another bank officer... Continue reading

Posted Apr 15, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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Tighten Up! No, Loosen Up!

The Obama administration’s recent call for mortgage lenders to loosen underwriting standards on residential mortgage loans to less-than-“Qualified Mortgagors” as long as the FHA (i.e., the American taxpayer) is taking most of the risk of default, generated some pretty strong... Continue reading

Posted Apr 14, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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Interview With The Bank Lawyer

Crystal Gimesh, who, among her other duties, blogs for NContracts, a vendor management and contract management solutions company, asked to interview me for her blog. I assumed that she must be hard up for material, but she seemed like a... Continue reading

Posted Apr 10, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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Some Grim News Just Got Grimmer

As regular readers know, I have been on a mission over the past several years to encourage would-be law students to consider equally enjoyable employment prospects, such as being screamed at by that Hell's Kitchen buffoon for splattering a souffle,... Continue reading

Posted Apr 9, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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Three Hurdles To Jump Pose No Obstacle To An Elephant

Banking compliance consultant Nancy Griffin thinks that bankers fear the "effects test" (i.e., "disparate impact"), which, I think, is correct. She also thinks that they should not be as afraid of disparate impact as they seem to be, because it's... Continue reading

Posted Apr 8, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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The Real Deal? Not...

From time to time on this blog, I express the wish that banks and credit unions would stop sticking forks in each other's faces long enough to cooperate on issues of common concern. Credit unions in Missouri have obviously been... Continue reading

Posted Apr 7, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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Don't Bring A Popgun To A Gunfight

Due to more business travel over the next three days, this will once again be a short week for the blog. Although I hadn't intended to post another story about how one more bank or credit union employee or customer... Continue reading

Posted Apr 3, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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Refraining From Punching The Punching Bag

A regular reader sent me a link to a video of a recent interview of Sheila Bair by Bill Moyers. Bair plus Moyers equals big bank bashing, and you know going in what you're going to hear. For those who... Continue reading

Posted Apr 2, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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Eductaing Customers About Online Fraud: A Case Study

Two years ago, we discussed the fact that, pursuant to supplemental guidance issued by the FFIEC, financial institutions were going to have take seriously the need to educate their online banking customers about ways to prevent online banking fraud. BankInfoSecurity's... Continue reading

Posted Apr 1, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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Time Out

Thankfully for me (and for the haters of this blog), I'm on vacation this week and intend to devote more attention to Jack Daniels Black, Hennesy XO, and the blackjack tables at The Bellagio, than to anything related to banks... Continue reading

Posted Mar 24, 2013 at Bank Lawyer's Blog

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