Capital Briefs: Helfer: Faster Shutdowns in Next Bank Crisis

Regulators will close banks more quickly during the next banking crisis but not necessarily more often, a former top regulator said Wednesday.

In a speech to an international conference of deposit insurance officials, Ricki Helfer said that though tougher capital requirements and other reforms enacted in 1991 make it easier to close problem banks, increased market discipline should reduce the incidence of such problems.

"The question ... is whether the recent legislative changes have tipped the balance too much in the direction of limiting moral hazard and away from assuring financial stability," she told an international conference of deposit insurance officials. "I think the answer is 'no.'"

- Barbara A. Rehm and Scott Barancik