Since I started writing at Forbes, I’m unclear what to do with my “own” blog. So, for today, I’m reposting. If you have a better idea, let me know. The week before last I attended a show-and-tell event for adults in the crevice of the financial industry that calls itself…
Interest in Principles?
After hundreds of billions of bailout dollars and a litany of ensuing debacles, our banks are not the pride of the nation. Bankers are more maligned than used-car salesmen, it seems. Bank regulators have been completely overhauled and the aftermath of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau won’t be written for…
In the Black, underbanked report from New Zealand
In proper American form, I arrived in New Zealand clueless it is hosting the Rugby World Cup in two weeks – a massive event boosting a level of national excitement akin to the FIFA or the Olympics – and excited to check out how it handles its unbanked and underbanked,…
“Um, excuse me!” My Comment to the OCC on small-dollar loans
Re: OCC Guidance on Deposit-Related Consumer Credit Products (Docket ID OCC-2011-0012) Dear OCC Representative: Core Innovation Capital is submitting this letter in response to the request for comments by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on June 8, 2011. We appreciate the opportunity to respond to the…
Is Corporate Social Responsibility “hypocritical window-dressing”?
The New York Times ran an interesting story in the Business Section this weekend, titled, “First Make Money; Also Do Good.” Basically, it argues that corporate philanthropy is small potatoes and corporate social responsibility not much more than disingenuous marketing (“hypocritical window-dressing” according to Milton Friedman). Citing Harvard’s Michael Porter’s…
Dynamic Accounts
Why is it that my search engine can anticipate what I’m going to search for after just a couple keystrokes, my music player can string together 1000 songs based on a couple preferences, and my car can adjust whether I like to go through a turn in second gear, but…
The ol’ “Money In” Problem
Jack Dorsey just raised $100 million at a valuation of $1 billion for his new startup, Square, which allows smart phones to act as merchant credit card swipers. Western Union charges a pretty dime to accept cash and move it elsewhere. Green Dot’s reload network accounts for roughly one third of its…
And the Winner is…. GoalMine
Over 600 underbanked missionaries, mercenaries, bankers, regulators, entrepreneurs, investors CEOs and middle-managers descended upon New Orleans last week. Together, they represent the single most qualified and discriminating judge of what is hot and what is not in our sector. After watching live demonstrations and Twitter-guided Q&A with the finalists in our Core Underbanked…
Short-term loans you can TRUST
A couple weeks ago, I launched my one-man campaign to eradicate APR when it comes to short-term lending and proposed we replace it with TRUST. APR is bad because actually it doesn’t help the consumer, it provokes anger which informs regulations which causes the unintended consequences of even less availability…
Best Underbanked Forum Ever
The above is a synthesis of CFSI’s conference based on Twitter posts over the past couple days. Not nearly as amazing as the event, but a couple things strike me: “great” is the only very frequent word that’s not a basic descriptor of the event (like conference, consumer, financial). “CFPB”…