Financial Reform Movement in Retreat?

It looks like the Obama administration is tempering its ambitions for financial regulatory reform. It seems that the potential political brouhaha that would accompany a reduction in the number of agencies overseeing the financial markets would expend too much political capital. Instead, the administration will focus on securing broader powers for existing regulators to limit risk-taking. While the revamp of oversight will dramatically change the regulatory environment for finance, has the US missed an historic opportunity to completely overhaul the arcane regulatory framework of US finance? Possibly. It seemed as if the financial crisis presented lawmakers with a clear path to reworking the system. As time has passed and the global financial system has stabilized somewhat, the outcry for major structural change has become less loud. reform hawks will no doubt be disappointed by anything short of wholesale change to the system and will lament the loss of reform momentum.

The links:

• Te Obama administration wants Europeans to put their banks through much more rigorous public stress tests to ensure survival in a slipping economy.
  
• Deloitte & Touche released its 6th Global Risk Management Survey. The survey indicates that banks and other financial institutions continue to have significant opportunities to strengthen their risk management processes and tools.
• As plans for banks to leave TARP solidify, the WSJ wonders what to do about Citigroup.
• The 10 banks that got the green light to repay TARP include: Goldman Sachs, JPMorganChase, Morgan Stanley, American Express, Bank of New York Mellon, BB&T, Capital One, Northern Trust, State Street and US Bancorp.
• SIFMA Chief Executive Tim Ryan says that Wall Street accepts its share of responsibility for the crisis and intends to partner with the governments to overhaul the regulatory system.
• Morgan Stanley says there has been a fierce rally in leveraged loan CDO's.

Bank of America names Greg Curl CRO

Bank of America today replaced Chief Risk Officer Amy Woods Brinkley with Gregory Curl, a 31-year veteran of the Charlotte-based financial services giant. Curl most recently was global corporate strategic development and planning executive. He has been a key insider who has helped transform BofA from a regional bank to a global powerhouse. He had key roles in NationsBank's purchases of Bank of America (1998), Countrywide (2007), and Merrill Lynch (2008). Curl joined the NationsBank family when he was serving as vice chairman and COO of Boatmen's Bancshares which Nations acquired in 1996.

Brinkley, 53, has decided to retire, with the official line from BofA being that Ken Lewis and Brinkley "mutually decided that we needed a different approach to our risk management and it was a good time to change leadership." Brinkley has been a regular in lists of influential woman executives, and had made steady progression through the senior ranks at BofA. Brinkley joined NCNB in 1978 as a mangement trainee in the commercial credit department. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.