Opinion

Let’s stop being so doggedly predictable

I have a friend named Steve with whom I share a monthly dinner out with our respective spouses. Steve is a predictable sort with simple tastes. He likes pizza, chow mein, or a well-done(!) steak, but will set aside any of these options whenever he spies fish-and-chips on a menu. If I gently tease that he’s missing an opportunity to try something new by always ordering the same food, he shrugs his shoulders and says: “I know what I like.” I would like to tell Steve he has it backward. He doesn’t “know what he likes.” He “likes what he knows,” choosing it again and again and again. [Continue]

The 2 percent solution: An argument for reparative investment

There are about 4,700 banks in America. Only 21 are Black-owned and they have less than $5 billion in assets. The total amount of assets in U.S. commercial banks is $20 trillion. So if you think about structural racism and access to capital — and 70 percent of African American communities don’t even have a branch bank of any type in those communities — we said, “Why don’t we think about how to address it?” [Continue]

#QuickTakes: Robert Johnston

CEO and co-founder of Adlumin Robert Johnston recaps the company’s roots in investigating the hack of the 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak, how gaps in cybersecurity affect banks, and what impact the pandemic has had on the importance of remote and cloud-based technology. [Continue]

Snapshot of Wisconsin student debt offers broad insights

Nationally, it’s widely reported that there are 45 million students who owe approximately $1.7 trillion in student loan debt. In Wisconsin, we have more than $24 billion in outstanding student loan debt, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Making matters worse is the fact that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority reports 53 percent of Wisconsinites live paycheck-to-paycheck each month. [Continue]

Pandemic raises stakes on debit card issue

The 10th anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act came in the midst of the pandemic, when debit card usage was surging. The Durbin Amendment to Dodd-Frank requires card issuers to enable cards to operate on at least two unaffiliated debit networks. Sen. Richard Durbin, (D-Ill.) recently wrote to the Federal Reserve about his concern that the largest card issuers are ignoring the rule at a time when card usage is skyrocketing, resulting in higher fees for merchants and, therefore, consumers. [Continue]

Digital marketing meets the needs of the moment

Fintel Connect is a Vancouver-based digital marketing firm that works with U.S. banks. Nicky Senyard, founder and CEO, talked with BankBeat about how the pandemic has forced banks to find new ways to reach customers. [Continue]

Consensus around PPP’s success

Democrats and Republicans unsurprisingly have different takes on the success of the Paycheck Protection Program. Opposing political parties routinely take shots at one another; weeks before a presidential election, the partisanship is especially acute. With respect to PPP, however, small business advocates should agree that the program provided crucial support very quickly, with safeguards against fraud that made PPP as effective as any massive government grant program can realistically be. [Continue]

Lessons learned from Capital One’s data breach

When an organization is the victim of a cybersecurity breach, the immediate concern is the compromised data. The damage to brand reputation, potential lawsuits, regulatory fines and stringent compliance oversight are sure to follow — carrying a hefty price tag — all of which is a sober reminder that the breach itself is only the beginning of a long road ahead. [Continue]

Turn PPP borrowers into core customers

Thousands of lenders across the country have loaned more than $230 billion to small businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program. While many banks focused on serving existing customers, perhaps equally as many attracted new customers. If your bank has acquired new customers through PPP, now is the time to solidify these relationships. [Continue]

How to survive a 2020 data breach

We are living in a time where technology advances at rapid speeds, the internet is more widely used than ever before, and people are in constant communication with one another. As a result, we are experiencing an uptick in threats to privacy and data security like cybercriminals, malware and of course, data breaches. Now more … Read more