Comments of the Week: SEC Takes on Money Market Funds; Fincen Takes on Digital Currency
June 7, 2013 12:12 PM
American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. As excerpted from the Comments sections of AmericanBanker.com articles.
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On a call to fully implement Dodd-Frank before lawmakers introduce more stringent reforms:
"It's difficult for me to imagine that Congress could enact anything worse than Dodd-Frank."
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On bank CEOs' 'gloomy' outlook for M&A:
"All you need to do is look at [return on average equity] numbers for small banks over the last several years to realize your invested capital would be better deployed in a utility company
We're now in the business of managing regulatory risk rather than risk itself."
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On the SEC's proposed money market reforms, which focus on institutional prime funds:
"The SEC should have covered the entire MMF industry with its rule and let the lobbyists take their appeal to Congress where the politicians could deal with it. Get the regulators out of politics."
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On regulators' proposed overdraft revenue reporting requirement:
"All this regulation is doing is providing a longer rope for which the bankers can hang themselves by. It does nothing for measuring the safety and soundness of the institution."
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On the assertion that it's time to kill the Camels rating system:
"The entire regulatory process is outdated and needs to be changed
With today's technology, there are better ways of monitoring banks than 'having boots on the ground,' especially in smaller banks."
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On the assertion that it's time to kill the Camels rating system:
"The independent review and rating under the Camels System can help. The problem may be that management does not take the report seriously."
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On whether it's time to kill Camels:
"The Camels ratings process is, in fact, broken. Six months before WaMu's demise, the [Office of Thrift Supervision] rated the company a Camels 2."
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On Fincen treating digital currency exchangers as financial institutions:
"What is so difficult to understand about that straightforward assessment? Money transmitters need to identify people they transfer money for and to report suspicious activity."
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On regulators' cracking down on digital currency outfits such as Liberty Reserve:
"The law was being applied heterogeneously under the vague definitions
by the regulators. What is the difference between Liberty Reserve and HSBC? In most people's definitions, only the scale, yet not a single person at HSBC has been jailed and the bank was never forced to stop trading."
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On Bitcoin users balking at regulation:
"It's cute the Bitcoiners think the Bitcoin technology is immune from government interference. We'll see."
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On a prediction that regulation will make Bitcoin as slow and expensive as regular banking:
"It is wishful thinking of established actors
Yes, people dealing with other people's money have to comply with rules of financial services, but this does not extend to those dealing with their own money, selling [their] own products, and this is the core of Bitcoin."
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