The government does not need to break up banks to protect the country from another financial crisis, says Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan.
President Barack Obama has outlined measures to curb risks in the financial sector, which, if passed into law, could break up some financial institutions by separating traditional banking businesses from riskier proprietary trading.
That, Moynihan says, might not be necessary.
“Bank of America is not too big,” says Moynihan, according to CNBC.
“Big by definition is not the question, it's a question of how you conduct your activities, how you manage activities and how you manage risk.”
Obama's plans to regulate bank size and risk have grabbed headlines recently, with some international bankers arguing that regulatory frameworks need to be crafted globally.
“We are in a global financial market and need a level playing field,” says Josef Ackermann, chief executive officer of Deutsche Bank, according to Bloomberg.
“It would not be productive to have different regulatory frameworks.”
Many in the financial community say breaking up banks would be a bad thing, including Robert Diamond, president of Barclays, a U.K. financial institution.
Banks have grown bigger because their customers want them to, Diamond, says, according to Bloomberg.
“The impact on jobs, the economy, would be very negative” if banks are required to split up and become more specialized, says Diamond.
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