The Art of Bank M&A: Buying, Selling, Merging, and Investing in Regulated Depository Institutions in the New Environment

CHAPTER 2

The Bank Regulatory Environment

A large, fragmented regulatory structure with numerous regulators remains. This requires regulators to coordinate actions and try to reconcile or balance differing approaches to ensure that regulated entities are subject to appropriate scrutiny.

—Report of the U.S. Government Accountability Office on Financial Regulatory Reform, January 23, 2013

 

While many in the United States blame banking deregulation for the recent financial crisis, it is notable that U.S. banks are heavily regulated—arguably more so than their foreign counterparts.¹ In the United States and in other countries, banking and government regulation are inseparable, and for good reason. The business of banks is money—something few individuals ...