Keith Noreika is executive vice president and chairman of the Banking Supervision and Regulation Group at Patomak Global Partners. He previously led Simpson Thacher & Bartlett's financial institutions regulatory practice, focusing on banking regulation and related litigation. He served as acting comptroller of the currency from May to November 2017.
Regulators' de facto ban on bank mergers and acquisitions is not just harming individual institutions. It poses systemic risk.
The idea that banks might be unmanageably large ignores the fact that the U.S. is full of well-managed firms that are far bigger than even the largest banks.
The crypto industry yearns for clarity on stablecoin regulations, but allowing the central bank to set the rules of the road would stifle innovation.
While increasing de novo activity is encouraging, the processes of chartering a bank and applying for deposit insurance are more onerous, lengthy and costly than they need to be.