“Sheila C. Bair served as the 19th chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for a five-year term, from June 2006 through June 2011.
“’Things that went better than expected: just about all of the rules where an agency could act alone, e.g., the FDIC’s rules on resolution authority and deposit insurance premiums; the CFPB’s rules on mortgage lending standards; the CFTC’s rules on moving standardized domestic swaps to centralized clearing.
‘Things that were bigger problems than expected: just about all of the rules where inter-agency coordination and agreement were required: e.g. tougher bank capital standards, the Volcker Rule, risk retention for securitizers. Between agency squabbling and industry lobbying, Sisyphus could move faster than the agencies in moving these rules.’”
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Dennis Kelleher is president of the nonprofit Better Markets, a former senior staff member in U.S. Senate and a former partner at Skadden Arps.
“No question that former Goldman Sachs partner Gary Gensler as chairman of the CFTC has regulated derivatives, correctly referred to by Warren Buffett as ‘financial weapons of mass destruction,’ better than anyone expected. Virtually all other financial reform has been a much bigger problem because no one expected Wall Street’s scorched earth strategy of fighting all financial reform nonstop.”
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