John Mack, the chief executive of Morgan Stanley, said he welcomes the increased regulation by the Federal Reserve that came after the investment bank converted to a bank holding company as the financial crisis wiped out 87% of its market value.
"We have probably 15 to 20 Fed regulators in our building 24 hours a day," Mack said this week at the "Covering the Crisis" panel discussion hosted by Bloomberg News and Vanity Fair in New York. "They test our models. They question everything we do. I've never been regulated like that before. It's a different environment. Someone said to me, 'What do you think of it?' I love it."
Mack, who plans to continue as the chairman of Morgan Stanley after stepping down as the CEO at the end of this year, said regulators should have been more active before the crisis. Mack said he even reached out to regulators after turning down the chance to finance a highly leveraged deal during the credit boom.
"I missed a piece of business," Mack said he told the regulators. "I can live with that, but as soon as I hung up the phone someone else put up 10 times leverage. We cannot control ourselves. You have to step in and control the Street."
