News Topic: regulation-reform

Applying the latest statistical techniques to measure operational risks lulls us into a false sense of analytic security and desensitizes management to the important qualitative aspects of controlling such exposures. ... Read full article

The bill may be a bridge between the advocates of a purely private market and those who favor some role for the federal government in housing. ... Read full article

Lenders will need to, among other things, evaluate and subsequently document their compliance with ability-to-repay and fair lending rules in order to avoid getting caught in regulators’ crosshairs. ... Read full article

By smoothening the credit cycle, macroprudential regulation can temper the major problems with the growth model of the past 30-odd years: the tendency toward excessive credit growth, booms and busts. ... Read full article

A recent flurry of directives indicates the Basel Committee is committed to establishing uniform, international capital standards that improve the safety and soundness of large, interconnected banks. ... Read full article

We need to encourage private lenders to return to the market. Until that occurs, the FHA will need to fill the gap. ... Read full article

Foreign banking organizations will need to create massive compliance and reporting systems to handle the Volcker Rule, even if the vast majority of their dealings are done outside its scope. ... Read full article

An explicit guarantee is better than the implicit one Fannie and Freddie had. But a more fundamental approach is to demand that financial actors internalize and capitalize the risks themselves. ... Read full article

Goldman Sachs, one of the owners of a newly designated “minority bank,” has a history of discriminatory behavior. ... Read full article

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week. ... Read full article

Leverage measures, which can zigzag with sudden inflows or outflows of deposits, should be viewed as a backstop to risk-based capital measures, not as a primary capital constraint. ... Read full article

Banks and regulators have proposed bail-in mechanisms for capital plans. Exposing creditors to losses could help protect taxpayers and depositors, but is long-term debt an adequate substitute for equity? ... Read full article

The FTC's move to hold payment processors responsible for the deeds of unscrupulous merchants could result in higher prices or less choices for small businesses and consumers. ... Read full article

More equity would enable banks to absorb more losses without becoming distressed or needing taxpayer support. Long-term debt is a poor substitute, particularly for the largest banks. ... Read full article

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week. ... Read full article

It is time to put an end to the misuse of companies to evade taxes and advance criminal purposes. ... Read full article

In the S&L crisis, regulators manipulated capital to prop up ailing thrifts. Today, regulators embrace risk-based requirements assuming they can correctly predict the future. ... Read full article

The SEC's recent roundtable on ratings shopping in structured finance was a reminder of how efforts at reform are obstructed by a wall of denial. ... Read full article