Bank channel

The question of whether some banks are still "too big to fail" will not be settled until the next crisis. That, in a nutshell, was the takeaway from a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, where lawmakers fought with each other over whether the Dodd-Frank Act adequately addressed the problem.

When Congress threatened to cap the interchange fees that banks collect on debit card transactions, the industry argued that such a move would force it to kill off its own debit rewards programs. As it turns out, the demise of those programs might inconvenience consumers but it is unlikely to deal banks much of a financial blow.

Christopher Adams returns to Citi in a new position as managing director of investment finance in the firm’s New York office.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon's scolding of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke had broad support among bankers reeling from a re-defeat on the Durbin amendment and renewed anxieties about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. With "300 rules coming," as Dimon lamented, there are plenty of things for bankers to hate.

HSBC Holdings PLC will exit the U.S. credit card business whether it finds a buyer for its $33 billion card portfolio here or not.

Bankers lost the Senate fight over interchange fees, but they are hoping the vote will help convince the Federal Reserve Board to raise its proposed 12-cent cap.

Merger and acquisition activity has been in the summer doldrums … since Jan. 1. Expectations had been high that 2011 would bring some serious moving and shaking among community banks. But the murky economy and regulatory uncertainty have discouraged buyers, turning them skeptical and picky.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nonbank that banks love to hate -- and fear -- is at it again. The retailer next week will begin rolling out automated versions of its MoneyCenter offices, which provide a range of financial services to shoppers.

Visa Inc. said its acquisition of the South African mobile payments company Fundamo will help it serve more underbanked consumers abroad. The San Francisco payments network said it would pay about $110 million for the Cape Town company.

AmericanWest Bank in Spokane, Wash., is moving into the California market with a deal to buy another bank from ailing Capitol Bancorp Ltd.

With regulators struggling to decide which loans to excuse from risk-retention, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair said Thursday the best option would have been to shelve the exemption altogether.

The Treasury Department has swapped the carrot for the stick for three of the largest participants in the administration's foreclosure prevention program.

A FINRA arbitration panel has ordered two former Morgan Stanley Smith Barney brokers to pay the firm $4.28 million plus interest for breach of promissory notes and other agreements.

After a couple years of strong growth and impressive returns in the market, many of Wall Street's biggest investment banks are reportedly considering some headcount reductions to cut costs.

In banking, the phrase "expense reduction" is often a euphemism for "layoffs." The chief financial officers of Comerica Inc. and Huntington Bancshares Inc. avoided the L-word when speaking to investors on Wednesday but said their institutions are prepared to cut workers if revenue stays weak or the economy gets worse.

Painful consolidation is coming to community banks, and the biggest determinant of which companies will survive is the quality of senior management, particularly the chief executive.

Although banks failed in their attempt to convince Congress to delay an interchange fee cap for debit cards, the financial services industry is not giving up, just changing venues.

Banks appeared to be gaining the upper hand in their battle against retailers to delay pending interchange fee caps, but the fight was far from over.

Giant financial institutions and wirehouses that spent fortunes attracting and retaining top-producing brokers and wealth managers over the past few years may be about to get socked with a big wave of departures this year and, especially, in 2012.

Forget ATM machines. Financial institutions that want to stay competitive are going to have to work the phones if they want to hang on to their customers in the future. That is to say, they’ll have to make their services accessible by smartphone.