BankThink

NJ Community banker: Government should take more time to work out the right rescue plan

What do community bankers really think of the government´s financial rescue efforts? One told Newark Star-Ledger reporter Joseph R. Perone that Congress should take more time and listen to more input before making any new moves to try to help banks.

Bruce Meisel, president of Pascack Community Bank in northeastern Bergen County, N.J., told Mr. Perone in a video interview that his bank has benefitted greatly from the capital it received under the Treasury Department´s Capital Purchase Program. Going forward, though, Mr. Meisel warned that Congress should take counsel not just from bankers but from other business owners when working on the next phase of a financial rescue or regulatory restructuring effort.

Mr. Meisel´s attitude contrasts sharply with Wall Street´s general vitriol this past week toward the Treasury´s rescue efforts, and its recent abandonment of faith in regulatory capital ratios as meaningful measures of a bank´s health. This dichotomy of responses seems to show capital injections have been able to make good banks better, but not to restore struggling ones to health.

Whether or not it´s really that simple, artists and designers around the globe are turning to primal depictions of good an evil to reflect their perceptions of the financial crisis and subsequent bailout. Bankers out there who need to get out their frustration over regulatory capital ratios or muddled federal responses can check out this Wall Street Fighter videogame demo.

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