President Barack Obama yesterday called for the biggest regulatory crackdown on banks since the 1930s, proposing strict limits on the size of financial institutions and a ban on risky activities such as proprietary trading and internal hedge funds.
Vowing that “never again will the American taxpayer be held hostage by a bank that is too big to fail”, Mr Obama said the measures were needed to prevent a repeat of the excesses that led to the financial crisis.
The far-reaching measures are on par with the response to the 1929 stock market crash which prompted the then US government to separate investment and commercial banking, a split that lasted until 1999.