Tag Archives: bank regulation

James M. Cirona: In Memoriam

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Devin Smith | 2 comments

By William K. Black
(Cross posted and Benzinga.com)

The death of a successful banker and regulator

James M. Cirona died January 4, 2014. I doubt that many readers know of Jim’s work even if they follow finance. That is a shame for Jim was one of the most important reasons the savings and loan debacle did not cause a financial crisis and a Great Recession. The reason Jim was so effective was that he understood that the factor driving the debacle was a surging epidemic of accounting control fraud and he had the leadership abilities and the courage to expand and focus the resources of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco (FHLBSF) to stop that epidemic.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged accounting control fraud, bank fraud, bank regulation, bankster

The City of London continues to drive the criminogenic regulatory race to the bottom

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Devin Smith | 25 comments

By William K. Black
(Cross posted at Benzinga.com)

Two years ago, I wrote an article entitled “The Bank of England Sows the Seeds of the Next UK Crisis.”

I was not vain enough to believe that the British establishment would listen to my critique. The books authored recently by Jeff Connaughton, Neil Barofsky, and Sheila Bair have made clear that the dominant strategy of the Bush and Obama administrations has been providing aid and comfort to the banksters who drove the crisis rather than holding them accountable for their crimes. The Brits are following the same dominant strategy.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged accounting control fraud, bank regulation, banksters, Control Fraud, criminogenic

The Dangerous Myth that Financial Regulation is Unrelated to Financial Crime

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Devin Smith | 2 comments

By William K. Black
(Cross-posted from Benzinga.com)

The inspiration for this article was an op ed in the Wall Street Journal by Wendy Long, the Republican/Conservative Party of New York’s candidate for the U.S. Senate. Long’s thesis is: Continue reading →

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged accounting control fraud, bank regulation

We Were Regulators Once: Ed Gray’s Finest Hour

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Mitch Green | 5 comments

By William K. Black
(Cross-posted from Benzinga)

On April 2, 1987, four U.S. Senators met secretly with Federal Home Loan Bank Board (Bank Board) Chairman Edwin J. Gray in the offices of Senator DeConcini (D.AZ). Senator Donald Riegle (D. MI) was a surprise no-show. DeConcini was joined by Alan Cranston (D. CA), John Glenn (D. OH), and John McCain (R. AZ). Keating hired Alan Greenspan as a lobbyist to help recruit the Keating Five. The Senators held the meeting at the request of Charles Keating, who controlled Lincoln Savings (a California chartered S&L). Lincoln Savings would become the mostexpensive failure of the S&L debacle due to Keating’s political cronies and Keating became the most infamous S&L fraud. A week later, on April 9, all five Senators met with four of Lincoln Savings’ senior regulators. I took the detailed notes of that meeting. The Senators became infamous as “the Keating Five.” A quarter-century later, few remember what the meetings involved.

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