Secura/Isaac Group Chairman William Isaac spoke to Brooke Masters at Financial Times on his concern at the decision to sell First Republic to JPMorgan Chase after the former suffered a $100bn deposit run.
From the article:
“I don’t think it is right to sell a failed bank to the largest bank in the country just because it paid the highest price,” [Isaac] said. “You make the largest banks bigger and bigger and you have fewer choices going forward. The FDIC has fewer choices next time and consumers have fewer choices.”
A 1992 law requires the FDIC to seek the “least cost” solution but Isaac pointed out regulators are also required to consider a much broader range of factors including competition when deciding whether to approve bank deals.
“The FDIC and other regulators should always have a choice to do what’s best for the country, even if it costs more,” he said. “Now there’s one less bank in the wealth space and the biggest bank has gotten bigger. Is that healthy? Is that what we want?”
Read the full article here.