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William Harrison, Jr., the former Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase and an outspoken defender of large banks, says forced breakups are not in the cards.

William Harrison, former chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, is "very happy" with the bank's current position and confident the fallout from its London Whale trading losses will blow over.

Bankers these days face the prospect of getting penalized for everything from "disparate impact" to the actions of auto dealers and other third-party partners. That raises the question of whether such regulation is effective, enforceable or fair.

Tim Pawlenty, the CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable, says that complying with new regulations is the foremost concern for retail bankers. He spoke with American Banker at the Best Practices in Retail Financial Services Symposium.

Social media poses daunting dilemmas for bankers who must grapple with new security, regulatory and reputational challenges.

Making bank buyouts work has long been a risky business. As the sudden ouster of First Niagara (FNFG) CEO John Koelmel shows, it may have gotten riskier still. Behind the perils are the complications of conducting due diligence, evaluating troubled assets, navigating regulations and pleasing dilution-averse shareholders.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is planning a crackdown on the interest rate markups that auto dealers add onto the cost of car loans. Although it's dealers who originate the loans, the CFPB lacks the authority to regulate them directly. Bankers fear that as a result the agency will turn its focus to holding them accountable for monitoring loans made by the dealers with whom they work.

Lending to small and mid-sized enterprises and fee businesses like wealth management are the key to Zions Bancorp.'s growth plans, says its CEO Harris Simmons.

The London Whale, the attorney general's "too big to jail" bombshell and stress test failures have all added to the calls for big banks to split up. For the first time since the financial crisis, shotgun breakups are becoming a very real possibility.