Why Commercial Banks Should Be Strictly Regulated?

The fact that banks control 97% of the world's money supply makes them a vital institution. Banks are the engine of our modern financial system and a source for economic growth. The bank's ability to create credit can have destructive effects; the Great Depression of 1929 and the Great Recession of 2008. In both cases, banks spurred on an asset bubble through overextending credit to aid the purchase of assets. The result was an economic collapse that wiped out wealth and reduced credit creation which stalled productive investments. The lessons of the two great economic collapse support the notion proposed by the author, that bank credit for transactions that do not contribute to the economy should be restricted.

The banking industry has undergone major upheaval in recent years, largely due to the lingering recessionary environment and increased regulatory environment. Many banks have failed in the face of such tough environmental conditions. These conditions

There are various categories of banking; these include retail banking, directly dealing with small businesses and persons. Commercial and Corporate banking which offers services to medium and large businesses (Koch & MacDonald 2010). Private banking, deals with individuals, offering them one on one service. The last category is investment banking. These help clients to raise capital and often invest in financial markets. Most global banking institutions provide all these services combined. With all these institutions in existence within the same localities and offering similar services, there is a need to regulate the industry so as to protect the consumer and provide fair working environment for all banks (Du & Girma, 2011).

Morrison suggests that government should try to make regulations that can make TBTF policy effective rather than, try to end the policy, which is impossible. Morrison discusses the role of the policy in designing suitable capital regulations, in the restriction of bank scope and in institutional design. The author argues that financial institutions receive help from taxpayers and government because regulatory authorities believe that its failure would have severe effects on the country’s economy.

Today banks are regulated, unlike in time prior to this event which partly caused the “epidemic of bank failures”. People now commonly have at least some knowledge of how banks function, contrasting people of the banking crisis

First, an overview of the Twentieth Century American Banking System. Banking regulations are implanted to strengthen the banking sector and to eliminate bank panics. For example, the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913 was largely a response to lessons learned in the Panic of 1907. Industry regulation and structure, risk management viz. moral hazard, adverse selection.

The reality of systemic risk made the task of regulating the financial system increasingly complicated, as the crises aren’t contained in one country or market. The extreme inter-dependence between the different agents is the main reason why we need regulation today, as some misconducts can cause a domino effect, affecting markets globally. The structure of the banking system in itself explains this process. In the finance industry, banks borrow money from other banks. If one bank fails, the one who lent the funds in the first place might also follow the same path, creating panic in the markets. The government’s first prerogative is to protect its citizens from these

Alexander Hamilton proposed using a banking system in America in 1781 after seeing how beneficial they were in other nations for advancing trade. In 1791, First Bank of the United States became the first commercial bank of the United States in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By the 1900’s, there were almost 170 banks per every million people in the United States, but because of this, there was a lot of debate about banking and the regulations needed and the fears that people had about the amount of control it was giving the government. This paper will be starting from the Great Depression and talk its way into the current situation of the United States banking regulations and why there is a debate on if there should be more or fewer regulations on banking.

Extensive research has determined that the banking industry is in an unstable state. The industry’s profits have

New financial regulations have been created and existing regulations have been revised in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The role of financial regulatory policy in the financial crisis is sometimes presented in a way that will help the economy improve. Deregulation was an approach that the economy was implementing towards to. According to Kroszner and Strahan in the reading about What Drives Deregulation?, in order to achieve a positive theory of regulatory change, it is crucial for an economy to characterize the regulatory process as one in which “well-organized groups use the power of the state to capture rents at the expense of more dispersed groups.” (Kroszner, Strahan Pp 1438) This suggested that the elimination of restrictions on bank branching will benefit the theories of regulatory change.

One of the principal functions of financial oversight authorities in achieving a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system is to regulate and supervise various financial entities. But following the crisis of 2007, regulatory authorities in the whole world were engaged in a fundamental reconsideration of how they approach financial regulation and supervision. Performing these functions through micro- prudential regulation and supervision of banks, holding companies, their affiliates and other entities, including nonbank financial companies, proved to be insufficient to ensure and maintain financial stability of a country, union or the world as a whole.

In this essay I will be addressing the “Too Big To Fail” (TBTF) problem in the current banking system. I will be discussing the risks associated with this policy, and the real problems behind it. I will then examine some solutions that have been proposed to solve the “too big to fail” problem. The policy ‘too big to fail’ refers to the idea that a bank has become so large that its failure could cause a disastrous effect to the rest of the economy, and so the government will provide assistance, in the form of perhaps a bailout/oversee a merger, to prevent this from happening. This is to protect the creditors and allow the bank to continue operating. If a bank does fail then this could cause a domino effect throughout

The financial crisis in 2008 was been considered as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. One of the major reasons of the crisis was that banks in the States were given permission by the repeal of the Glass-Steagall legislation, which allowed banks to affiliate with insurance, real estate, security. The goal was to create financial firms “better equipped to compete in global financial markets”. With the firewall between commercial banks, which make loans and take deposits, and investment banks, which underwrite securities removed, an opportunity rise for banks to create and push more money and eventually to speculate on financial markets. The financial crisis reminded us that the banking industry has a serious influence

Financial regulation is necessary and without an efficient set of regulations a country could see rises in unemployment, interest rates, and the deterioration of financial intermediaries. With the globalization of the financial industry, it becomes more and more common for businesses to seek financing outside of their county 's boarders. These innovations in the financial industry stress why it is so important for regulations to be created and changed to reduce risk and asymmetric information in financial systems.

Being a developing country going through significant transformation in its political and economic life, banking is one of the major industries that is shaping the business landscape, however, the industry is dominated by public sector and retail customers who are the major depositors in the bank (source of funds) while institutional funds is a very small part of deposit. The nature of the industry made it a very competitive one; so, banks have to compete rigorously with each other for deposits from public sector and other retail sources.