Standing Up for the SAFE Banking Act
Despite the financial crash of 2008 and the passage of the subsequent Dodd-Frank reform bill, not enough has been done thus far to address the issue of too big to fail banks. With assets equivalent to 64% of GDP concentrated amongst six of the largest Wall Street banks today, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has recently introduced the Safe, Accountable, Fair & Efficient Banking Act of 2012. The bill, which has wide-ranging support from the likes of former the Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, Republican ranking member on the Banking Committee Richard Shelby, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Richard Fisher, FDIC Board member Thomas Hoenig, Former Chairman of the FDIC Sheila Bair, economist Simon Johnson, Stanford finance professor Anat Admati, and former governor of Utah Jon Huntsman, was introduced by Senator Brown prior to a hearing entitled “Is Simpler Better? Limiting Support for Financial Institutions.” It seeks to impose strict limits on institutions' deposit and non-deposit liabilities and requires them to hold considerably more capital, reducing their leverage. In short, the bill seeks to break up big banks and prevent them from putting the nation’s economy at risk.
Capital Institute’s John Fullerton stood up in support of the SAFE Banking Act in April, 2010, in a letter sent to the Senators reviewing the bill. John pointed out that too big to fail poses serious risks to our economic and political system greater than the likely consequences of the bill and that we needed to act fast to avoid future crises. As the $2bn JPMorgan trading loss revives discussions of too big to fail in the mainstream, political, and business media, we would like to once again stand-up in support of the work Sen. Brown and many others are doing in Washington, DC to advance this important bill.