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Also features Comptroller of the Currency Thomas J. Curry on cultivating sound risk management cultures at banks

 

New York, NY – October 8, 2014 – The Clearing House (TCH) today released the third quarter issue of its quarterly journal, Banking Perspectives. The newest edition is titled Pocket Change: How Technology is Changing the Way We Pay and focuses on innovation in payments, particularly with respect to mobile payments and virtual currencies.  The issue features articles from leading payments experts including TCH’s Senior Vice President for Product Development and Management, Dave Fortney.  Mr. Fortney oversees the development of new products and is leading The Clearing House’s initiative to develop and launch a secure digital-payments tokenization system. 

“Though significant changes in the payments ecosystem always take time, mobile payments have momentum and are poised for a major leap forward,” Mr. Fortney says in his article “Mobile Payments: Ready for Primetime.”   

“It is not hard to see that technology is changing the way we bank and this issue takes a deep dive into latest innovations that have the potential to revolutionize our industry,” said Jim Aramanda, CEO of The Clearing House.   

This quarter’s publication also includes an article by Thomas J. Curry, Comptroller of the Currency, on institutionalizing a proper risk management culture at banks. Related developments in UK banking standards are covered by the Bank of England’s Geoff Davies.

In a wide-ranging interview conducted by TCH Association President Paul Saltzman, retiring TD Group CEO Ed Clark offers valuable insights into how to build a strong organizational culture and how new U.S. regulatory requirements and trends in litigation and enforcement have impacted overall business strategy.

Lastly, Dean of the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, Professor Daniel Diermeirer, provides insights on the nature of public perception for corporations, including banks, and how reputation management needs to be an integrated corporate capability, not merely a corporate function.

TCH began publishing Banking Perspectives in November 2013 to help foster debate and discussion on the issues shaping the evolving banking landscape.

For a complimentary subscription, please click here.

Unwritten Rules: The Importance of a Strong Risk Culture

Thomas J. Curry, Comptroller of the Currency

Sound organizational risk management and risk culture are critical to ensuring the maintenance of the broader safety and soundness of the banking system. While recent regulations put the nation’s largest banks on a path to prudent risk management, internal controls are no stronger than the culture that surrounds them.

Mobile Payments: Ready for Primetime

Dave Fortney, The Clearing House

Recent developments like Apple Pay indicate that consumers and merchants are ready to shift from plastic to mobile. However, adoption at scale will necessitate that a mobile wallet solution be able to balance customer and merchant value propositions and simultaneously gain support from incumbent stakeholders. By focusing their investments on long-term safety and soundness solutions, banks will play an instrumental role in ensuring mobile payments adoption.

Regulating Bitcoin: Practical Approaches for Virtual Currencies 

Duncan Douglass and Lauren Giles, Alston & Bird

Although their consumer adoption has increased, virtual currencies are unlikely to become mainstream payment products unless the risks associated with them are addressed. Current approaches to regulation of other alternative payment products can serve as a useful model for mitigating these risks and consequently accelerate adoption.

State of Banking

Paul Saltzman Interviews Ed Clark

Retiring TD Group CEO Ed Clark offers his views and insights into how to build a strong organizational culture, the benefits afforded by economies of scale, how new U.S. regulatory requirements and trends in litigation and enforcement have impacted overall business strategy, and the global economic outlook.

Heroes, Villains, and Victims: Understanding and Managing Reputational Risk

Dr. Daniel Diermeier, University of Chicago 

In a business climate with increasing informational transparency, supply chain complexity, and public expectations for corporate performance, trust is now an essential part of business success. Banks need to acknowledge the strategic importance of reputational decisions and develop capabilities to execute these decisions in a manner that supports their broader business objectives.

Raising Expectations: Developments in UK Banking Standards

Geoffrey Davies, Bank of England 

The UK’s Parliamentary Commission for Banking Standards recently published recommendations regarding standards and culture at large banks. These recommendations as well as an industry-led effort to form an independent Banking Standards Review Council have begun to transform and enhance standards at UK banks.

Reforming our Regulatory Structure: Dodd-Frank’s Missed Opportunity

Richard Neiman and Mark Olson, Bipartisan Policy Center

The U.S. financial system remains too fragmented, with gaps in regulation that contribute to systemic risk. A more modern financial regulatory architecture should be considered – one in which regulatory agencies have clearer mandates, are better empowered to perform their regulatory functions, are more focused on truly systemic risks, and are more clearly committed to international coordination with regulatory counterparts.

About The Clearing House Established in 1853, The Clearing House is the oldest banking association and payments company in the United States. It is owned by the world’s largest commercial banks, which hold more than half of all U.S. deposits. The Clearing House Association L.L.C. is a nonpartisan advocacy organization representing – through regulatory comment letters, amicus briefs and white papers – the interests of its owner banks on a variety of important banking issues. Its affiliate, The Clearing House Payments Company L.L.C., provides payment, clearing and settlement services to its member banks and other financial institutions, clearing almost $2 trillion daily which represents nearly half of the automated clearing-house, funds transfer, and check-image payments made in the U.S. See The Clearing House’s web page at www.theclearinghouse.org.