“It was only two years ago that there was a spirited debate about whether to break up the country’s biggest banks so the government would never again have to step in and bail them out for fear that a failure would trigger a financial panic.

“The White House and Republicans never liked that idea. Instead, they pushed through a less heavy-handed approach that capped the growth of the four largest banks, each of which now has more than $1 trillion in assets, while imposing on them slightly higher capital requirements to offset their “too big to fail” advantage in attracting capital and deposits.

“Now the ink is barely dry on the Dodd-Frank Act and big regional banks, prodded by Wall Street dealmakers and analysts, are once again in merger and acquisition mode. And if regulators let it happen, you can bet your ‘Citi Never Sleeps’ coffee mug that the next wave of consolidation will produce even more trillion-dollar banks in five years.”

Read the full story at the Washington Post