Viewpoint: In Obama Plan, Devilish Details for Big Banks
By Karen Shaw Petrou
Managing Partner
Federal Financial Analytics, Inc.
One ongoing critique of the Obama regulatory reform plan is that it would enshrine “too big to fail” banks, making them not only invulnerable to regulators, but also invincible against competitors. It’s certainly true that the proposal doesn’t push to resurrect barriers between commercial and investment banking. Nor does it set an arbitrary size threshold over which banks would be banned. But, what’s not in the plan on systemic risk is dwarfed by what’s in it. By imposing an awesome array of tough regulatory and capital standards, the Obama administration would create sharp downdrafts that force even the current colossi of Wall Street to reconsider their combined charters.