Too Big to Supervise: Has BB&T outgrown the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.? Bank consultant, retired Wharton professor, and longtime gadfly Kenneth Thomas argues that the Federal Reserve or Office of the Comptroller of the Currency would be better-suited to oversee a bank of BB&T's size. He also suggests that BB&T may have benefited from regulatory favoritism under the FDIC because of its outsized influence. Some commenters were skeptical about Thomas's claim that the other agencies could do better. "To say that the OCC would be better [raises] the question about where the OCC was when every single one of the mega-banks they directly supervise functionally failed during the Great Recession," writes "commobanker." Adds BankThink regular Chris Whalen: "Go through former [FDIC] chairman [Sheila] Bair's published description of the fiasco at Citigroup, Countrywide and Wachovia and then tell me about the efficacy of the OCC and Fed regulation at large banks."
Regulatory Backfire: Subjecting regional banks to systemic regulation is
Also on the blog: Boston University law professor Cornelius Hurley
Many bankers were no doubt disappointed by the FOMC's decision this week to leave rates unchanged for now. Former community bank chief turned consultant Peyton Patterson suggests that a rate hike
Regulators can help banks get back into small-dollar lending by supporting an
Traditional community bankers may
A faster electronic payments system could
Card issuers should consider giving companies with digital wallet platforms a
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