“Jack Lew, the Treasury secretary, has pushed back strongly against critics of the Dodd-Frank financial reforms amid renewed efforts in the US Congress to introduce fresh regulations to reshape and constrain big banks.

“However, he tempered his defence by saying at a CNBC conference that if by year’s end, “we cannot, with an honest, straight face, say we have ended ‘Too Big to Fail’, we are going to have to look at other options.”

“Mr Lew said Dodd-Frank had already begun to change bank behaviour and business models, as financial institutions lifted their capital, reduced “risky proprietary trading” and returned to a focus on traditional banking.

“‘Members of Congress who want to alter financial reform before it is fully in place should carefully consider implementation efforts that are approaching completion,’ he said in a speech in Washington.“

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