Banking is based on two fundamentally irreconcilable functions: safekeeping of deposits and relending of deposits. Safekeeping is meant to be a risk-free function, but using deposits to fund loans inevitably poses risk to deposits, thereby undermining the safekeeping function. The expensive,...

This is a short analysis of the Taxpayer Protection and Responsible Resolution Act (TPRRA) of 2018, a proposal to amend the Bankruptcy Code add a new Chapter 14 authorizing a single-point-of-entry style resolution of failed bank holding companies. The analysis shows that TPRRA would dangerously...

This research brief examines the potential impact of overdraft regulation on credit unions using a unique data set developed from a survey of 185 credit unions' overdraft practices. It provides the first-ever empirical overview of credit unions' overdraft practices, as well as data on credit...

Systemic risk - the possibility that an individual firm's failure will result in broad damages to the economy as a whole - is the epitome of financial crisis. Bailouts of troubled firms have long been the standard response to systemic risk. Yet, bailouts suffer from problems of political...

In November 2006 Wal-Mart's Mexican subsidiary received approval to open a bank. The application faced little opposition in Mexico, unlike the company's failed effort to start a bank in the United States. This was partly because in Mexico, Wal-Mart's entry was generally regarded as increasing...

Financial systems and public treasuries are communicating vessels: strength or weakness in one flows to the other, and back. This chapter considers the implications of this insight using case studies from Europe, Asia, and Latin America. The connection is not unique to Europe, although it does...