Credit Suisse and SVB: Where were the regulators and who governs them?

Here we go again! Banks are starting to pop left and right, and in the US and Switzerland – countries that should have learned from the 2007-08 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and know better.

This raises a fundamental question: who governs the regulators so that they learn and retain their lessons from previous crises, and apply them with determination to avoid a repeat scenario? It’s not simply about changing the rules but also asserting themselves where necessary.

The 2007-08 crisis already was the result of a sequence of relaxing constraints on the US banking system. It started with the relaxation by the SEC of the net capital rule, allowing investment banks to greatly increase their level…