Why banks shouldn’t blame the ‘repo rupture’ on regulation

By Sheila C. Bair (Original source Yahoo Finance)

Bank lobbyists, like magicians, are skilled at the art of legerdemain. Whenever there are unexpected problems in the financial markets, they are quick to create the illusion of financial regulation as the culprit. In doing so, they divert attention from the real cause, which is all-too-often misbehavior on the part of the banks they represent.

True to form, the banking industry’s lobbyist-supreme, JPMorgan Chase’s (JPM) Jamie Dimon, and others, have been blaming post-crisis financial regulations for recent malfunctions in the “repo” market. However, if anything, this episode suggests regulators need to do more, not less, to stabilize big banks and make sure they can serve as a source of strength in times of stress.

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