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Secura Group of LECG chairman William M. Isaac proposes that the Securities and Exchange Commission suspend market-to-market accounting rules, which have led to the destruction of bank capital. American Bankers Association president and CEO Edward L. Yingling claims that market-to-market accounting contributes to market uncertainty. How market-to-market accounting resulted in credit freeze is examined.

Byline: William M. Isaac When it comes to short-term, small-dollar loans, banks are between a rock and a hard place. Consumers are demanding short-term credit, and officials such as former [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac The Trump administration has an opportunity to break an eight-year-old logjam on mortgage finance policy and begin setting a future course for the government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac, Richard M. Kovacevich It seems like politicians, regulators and economists -- from Sen. Elizabeth Warren to Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari -- have [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac Prior to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's proposal last month on payday, title and high-cost installment loans, I was both hopeful and concerned about the upcoming [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac Community and regional banks across the United States are badly in need of regulatory relief. A bill proposed by Sen. Richard Shelby is poised to give [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac The Justice Department program Operation Choke Point set a dangerous precedent by pushing banks to sever relationships with lawful businesses. Now the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac At yearend 2010 Bank of America had $2.3 trillion of assets, $230 billion of capital, 57 million customers, ranked among the top companies in nearly every [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac President Obama should acknowledge that something is seriously wrong with the government's response to the financial crisis of 2008 and chart a new course. The wisdom [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac and Robert H. Smith Thousands of community banks have a full plate maintaining capital levels, working troubled loans, making money and dealing with aggressive regulatory scrutiny. [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac and Robert H. Smith Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke noted in a recent speech: 'Community bankers live and work where they do business, and their institutions [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac Washington failed us in four major ways concerning the financial crisis of 2008. First, the wrong lessons were drawn from the banking and savings and loan [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac I've seen up close hundreds if not thousands of troubled financial institutions over the years and have drawn some conclusions about governance that I would like [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac and Robert H. Smith Everyone has an interest in policies that will foster a strong economy and job growth. Some steps have been taken, but we [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac A recent e-mail exchange with a person who heard me criticize the financial reform legislation in a radio interview pretty well covers the points in controversy. [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac and Cornelius Hurley It is well documented that 'too big to fail' banks and nonbanks enjoy a substantial taxpayer subsidy in the form of lower borrowing [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac and Cornelius Hurley In the parlance of credit rating agencies, it is all about 'notches.' These pesky merits and demerits determine how much a company must [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac The Obama administration and Senate leadership tell us that the 'Dodd bill' pending in the Senate would create 'the most sweeping financial reform since the Great [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac Nearly all of our political leaders agree that we must banish the 'too big to fail' doctrine in banking, but neither the financial reform bill approved [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac As the memories of the cataclysmic events of the fall of 2008 recede, we run the risk of failing to apply their lessons.Many things went wrong, [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac The centerpiece of Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd's financial reform proposal is a new Financial Institutions Regulatory Administration to regulate all banks and thrifts and [...]

The Treasury has proposed a new bill it claims addresses 'systemic risks' and 'toobigtofail' institutions. It does neither, and in fact it creates new moral hazards by extending the federal [...]

It is legitimate to debate whether Bank of America did its shareholders any favors by agreeing to purchase Countrywide Bank in January of 2008 to become the nation's largest mortgage [...]

Creation of a superagency to regulate banks is a beguilingly simple idea. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, recently sent up a trial balloon, giving the [...]

The Obama administration, in unveiling its financial regulatory reform proposals, identified three factors contributing to the financial crisis: ill-defined regulatory responsibility for systemic risks, inadequate supervision of large institutions and [...]

It is widely believed that the U.S. financial system needs a 'systemic risk' regulator to help prevent future financial crises. The debate is centered not on whether we should have [...]

The government's program to conduct stress tests on the 19 largest banks has led to endless hype in the news media and considerable stress for banks. Regulators and executives have [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac When Congress passed the financial bailout bill in October, it ordered the Securities and Exchange Commission to study whether market value accounting's pro-cyclicality has exacerbated the [...]

When Congress passed the financial bailout bill in October, it ordered the Securities and Exchange Commission to study whether market value accounting's pro-cyclicality has exacerbated the economic crisis. It's clear [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac When the history of the current financial crisis is written, wrongheaded regulatory and accounting policies will go down as major villains. There are plenty of candidates [...]

Bankers are torn on whether to participate in the Treasury Department's Capital Purchase Program, and they are fast running out of time to make the decision. In view of several [...]

The government has announced steps to increase protection for bank creditors, and though I support the general thrust of the moves, they present substantial issues and unintended consequences. I believe [...]

Byline: William M. Isaac It is disheartening that Congressional leaders are on the verge of enacting the largest bailout program in history, a $700 billion real estate loan purchase from [...]

The Fed's decision to open the discount window to Wall Street firms, and to subsidize the takeover of Bear Stearns, requires that we rethink the regulation of Wall Street. How [...]

It's nearly impossible to watch a news show without being assaulted by sensational reports about the subprime mortgage crisis. It's important that we put these problems in their proper context [...]

To the Editor: I'm puzzled by a recent column by Vernon Hill attacking the American Bankers Association ['Why Do Bankers Accept Such Lack of Political Power?' Feb. 15, page 11]. [...]

The Basel capital rules long ago proved themselves to be ineffective and unwieldy. A former FDIC chairman said that history offers us a better alternative in the form of a regulator-centric model rooted in a pre-Basel approach to oversight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent liquidity crisis in the mortgage markets raises a number of questions and issues that need to be debated. They range from what to do about the problems to [...]

The financial markets have been in turmoil in recent months, in large part because of concerns about subprime mortgages. I am convinced that the problems are not nearly as severe [...]

Basel II - a capital regime proposed by regulators a decade ago for the largest banks in the world - is coming down the home stretch. U.S. regulators announced recently [...]

Subprime mortgage lending is one of today's hottest financial topics. There is a great deal of concern about potential widespread defaults by borrowers leading to massive foreclosures, failures of financial [...]

I believe in the marketplace and that those who would restrict its operation should bear a significant burden of demonstrating the need for the restrictions. Moreover, when government intervenes in [...]

Nearly a decade in the making, at a cost measured in billions of dollars, the Basel II capital regime proposed by regulators for the largest banks in the world has [...]

Industrial loan companies came into existence in the early 1900s to serve the borrowing needs of blue-collar workers. They received little notice until last year, when Wal-Mart Stores Inc. filed [...]

I have known Dick Kovacevich, chairman and chief executive of Wells Fargo & Co., for over 20 years and have long admired his ability to lead a large bank very [...]

Industrial loan companies came into existence during the early 1900s to serve the borrowing needs of blue-collar workers. While ILCs were barely noticed for most of their existence, they are [...]

The retirement of Alan Greenspan marks the end of a golden era in which the Fed has enjoyed remarkable stability and enviable stature under the leadership of two of its [...]

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of Basel II, an extraordinarily complex set of risk-based capital rules being developed by international bank regulators to apply to the megabanks [...]