August 09, 2014

SEC, FDIC Worry less about bank´s living wills and more about how banks live!

Sir, Lex reports on the Fed and FDIC wanting “Bank’s living wills”, August 9.

Not only do I find bank living wills somewhat preposterous, as it would be up to the inheritors to decide what to do, not to those administrators of a bank that when a collapse might occur might have de facto been proven very bad.

And, what if the SEC and FDIC do not like the wills… will they pressure the banks so much that they might collapse because of that?

No, much more important than what happens to banks when they are gone is what they do when they are alive and kicking… and now, thanks in much to the distortions created by the regulators with their risk-based capital requirements, the banks are not allocating credit efficiently. And… excuse me, that´s a far more serious problem.