{mosads}Noting that regulators at the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have their hands full implementing several pieces of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, they urged them to move quickly on those two projects in an effort to put to bed lingering impression that the government is on the hook for bailing out the nation’s biggest banks.
“By acting to substantially strengthen capital requirements and to ensure that future losses of a large bank failure will be absorbed by its shareholders and unsecured creditors, you will further your statutory mandate to protect the public against financial instability and go a long way toward ending too-big-to-fail,” they wrote.
Regulators have acknowledged that markets still perceive a “too big to fail” advantage but have maintained that Dodd-Frank will ultimately provide the tools to slam the door on future bailouts.
Meanwhile, members of both parties have become increasingly vocal about their concerns regarding “too big to fail,” as lawmakers are pushing legislation to either tighten restrictions on big banks or break them into smaller pieces.
Earlier on Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) introduced legislation that would instruct the Treasury to identify and dismantle financial institutions that pose a threat to the financial system thanks to their size. And Brown and Vitter are working on another bill that would further beef up capital requirements for banks.