PayThink

Spending several million dollars to beef up risk management processes would be an easy decision if it saved hundreds of millions in deposit assessments each year. Also, Camels should become Carmels.

Federal Reserve Board Gov. Jeremy Stein said regulators should not abandon the current reform agenda designed to eliminate "too big to fail."

Steve Antonakes, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Acting No.2, reassured executives at the American Bankers Association's government relations summit over the impending mortgage rules and the examinations that will follow.

The narrative favored by politicians, regulators and bureaucrats is that private banks caused the financial crisis of 2008. The Federal Reserve Chairman and Treasury Secretary stopped the market panic and a repeat of the Great Depression, then politicians and regulators implemented a plan that will maintain a sound financial system. The economic ship of state is stable, under full steam and accelerating.

Their only concern is that regulatory burdens remain high enough to prohibit competition, but low enough to protect revenues and profits.

Scott Alvarez, the Federal Reserve Board's general counsel, told lawmakers that the Fed is unlikely to issue clear standards on when it would use Dodd-Frank to take apart big banks that pose a "grave threat" to the economy, each situation would have its own circumstances.

Taking on the size of firms that put our financial system at risk is the only way to eliminate unfair competitive advantages, unleash free markets and allow community banks to thrive.

Bitcoin and similar rogue digital money exploit the public appetite for an alternative to traditional banking. To stave off this threat, central banks should embrace secure, well-regulated digitization of fiat currencies.

Congress can certainly help, but regulators must recognize that they have a structural oversight problem and need to develop remedies on their own.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has offered clarifications to the mortgage rules first issued in January.