Bank Regulation Datapoint of the Day

From Binyamin Appelbaum:

Since 2000, about 240 banks have converted from federal to state charters…

About 12 percent of the banks that moved to state charters escaped federal regulatory actions, and experts on bank oversight say such cases are the tip of a broader pattern. They note that some banks convert in anticipation of a public enforcement action, or after persuading federal regulators to terminate an action.

If the Feds are barely qualified to regulate this nation’s banks, the chances of every state being able to do so are exactly zero. The first order of regulatory reform should be to abolish state regulation of lenders and insurers: it’s a recipe for lax oversight and enormous loopholes.

(Via Chittum)