Courtesy of Pam Martens.
Thomas Curry, Comptroller of the Currency
You know there is a lot more to the story when the top Federal regulator of Wall Street’s biggest banks turns to three foreign countries to figure out how to beef up examining these complex webs of darkness. And London (infamous now for its blinders as the biggest banks rigged Libor interest rates, foreign currency exchange and the metals market) can’t feel too good about being snubbed in the process.
It all started last year when the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Thomas Curry, commissioned a peer review study by senior financial supervisors from Australia, Canada and Singapore. Why these three countries?
According to the study, “the selection criteria were countries with significant and mature financial markets, well-respected supervisory regimes, and large commercial banks that have been consistently rated among the safest in the world. While virtually all of the major financial sectors around the world were affected by the crisis, major banks in these three countries demonstrated strong resilience.” (That may just as likely be a function of a central government refusing to allow its commercial banks to become global gaming casinos as it is an outcome of competent supervision.)
The international peer group was led by Jonathan Fiechter, a former OCC senior deputy Comptroller and, more recently, head of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department’s financial supervision and crisis management group at the International Monetary Fund.
The peer group’s members included Keith Chapman, Executive General Manager of the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority; Brigitte Phaneuf, Managing Director of Canada’s Office of Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI); Ted Price, former Deputy Superintendent of the OSFI; and Teo Swee Lian, Special Advisor, and former Deputy Managing Director for Financial Supervision at the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
…
