CAMBRIDGE WINTER CENTER for Financial Institutions Policy

CAMBRIDGE WINTER CENTER

for Financial Institutions Policy

The Cambridge Winter Center is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to fostering a rational and informed discourse on U.S. financial institutions policy.

Welcome to the Cambridge Winter Center

Copyright 2010 Cambridge Winter Incorporated. All rights reserved.

Program A
Sleeping Watchdogs:
Bank Governance & Regulation
Before the Fall

Program B
Out of the Shadows:
Industry Structure as a Determinant of Financial Services Stability

Program C
Consumer Finance 3.0:
Crisis, Reform, and the Next Decade of Consumer Lending

The Failure of Bank Board Governance
Through even the most forgiving of lenses, bank boards of directors performed miserably during the credit bubble and ensuing crisis. The primary problem: large bank boards simply lack the industry experience to provide a substantive check on risk-hungry management teams.

Auto Race to the Bottom
Proposals to exempt auto dealers from a new consumer protection regulator’s mandate are ill conceived. The exemption would be both a step backwards for consumer protection, and deeply offensive to basic free market principles.

ILCs and Shadow Banking
The Administration has proposed ending the long-standing Industrial Loan Company loophole in the Bank Holding Company Act’s regulatory architecture. This Note summarizes the recent evolution of ILCs, examines the empirical connection of ILCs to the credit crisis, and highlights implications for policy-makers.

Pay Dirt
Wall Street compensation might be unseemly, but it is an entirely rational and predictable market outcome -- one that is reinforced by the emergence of giant firms.

Through the Looking Glass (Steagall)
The “Volcker Rule,” as currently described, seems misplaced
-- or at least too narrow. Its
primary focus should be broker dealers, not banks.