Regulation

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators extended the deadline for three nonbank firms considered "systemically important" to submit their revised resolution plans, also known as living wills.

Regulators have long worried about the risks from the underwriting of leveraged loans, but they are now concerned about the potential for broader economic risk from losses on such loans.

Right now, financial institutions are not required to know the identity of the living, breathing person behind accounts owned by legal entities. The beneficial ownership rules proposed by Fincen would help expose money launderers, tax evaders and criminals.

Encouraging the financial industry to explore faster payments is all well and good. Effectively directing it to do so, however, is beyond the Fed's authority.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who forced Wall Street's biggest banks to pay billions in fines for their roles in the subprime mortgage crisis, is pressing for action against executives at those firms, even as he prepares to leave his post.

Banks and industry groups worry that the Financial Stability Board's "total loss absorbing capacity" proposal could disrupt capital formation while reform advocates say the rules could be strengthened even further.

HSBC has spent billions of dollars in compliance and legal costs, but the damaging scandals keep coming. Renewed attention on the problems at its Swiss private bank could fuel the debate about whether banks this size are too big to manage.

Big banks have only grown larger and more complex since the financial crisis, and there is reason to doubt the efficacy of measures aimed at preventing the risk of another taxpayer bailout.

The confirmation hearing for attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch suggested a shift in legislators' attitudes toward banks. Rather than the usual focus on banks' alleged misdeeds, lawmakers cast them as victims of government overreach in Operation Choke Point.

Bankers, technology CEOs and President Obama are throwing everything they have at countering the growing threat of cyber attacks, putting their faith in biometrics, tokenization and data sharing. But it's far from clear that it will be enough.