Newswise — The Stigler Center of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business is gathering notable banking minds to discuss “30 Years After the Failure of Continental Illinois Bank: Have We Solved Too Big to Fail?”
The conference will be held Thursday, May 15, in the Gleacher Center, 450 N. Cityfront Plaza, and will feature scholars of law and economics, regulators, and leading banking executives.
“The failure and rescue of Continental Illinois Bank in 1984 is perhaps the defining moment of modern U.S. banking history,” says Randall Kroszner, a Chicago Booth professor who will moderate the first panel. “For the last three decades, regulators and Congress have struggled to deal with its ‘too big to fail’ legacy. This conference will both analyze the responses to this first ‘too big to fail’ episode and generate a lively debate about what regulatory reforms are needed in light of the 2008-09 financial crisis.” Jerry Corrigan, former president of the Federal Reserve Banks of Minneapolis and New York and now Managing Director of Goldman Sachs, and Gary Stern, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and co-author of “Too Big to Fail: The Hazards of Bank Bailouts,” will deliver keynote addresses at 12:15 p.m. and 1:45 p.m., respectively.
The day begins with the panel “The Failure and Bail-out of Continental Illinois 30 Years Ago: Difficult Policy Decisions and Economic Consequences” at 8:30 a.m. Kroszner, the Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics at Chicago Booth and former Governor of the Federal Reserve System, will moderate the panel, with:• Michael Bradfield, general counsel of the Volcker Alliance and former general counsel for the U.S. Federal Reserve; • Oliver Ireland, a partner with Morrison & Foerster LLP and former vice president and associate general counsel of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; • Jack Murphy, Chief Executive Officer of Promontory Regulatory Analytics LLC, managing director of Promontory Financial Group LLC, and former FDIC general counsel and a former partner of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP; • Donald Toumey, a partner with Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and former special assistant to the general counsel of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
“Regulatory and Market Responses to ‘Too Big to Fail’ and Moral Hazard Following the Failure of Continental Illinois,” the second panel discussion, begins at 10:30 a.m., and will be moderated by Sam Peltzman, Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Economics at Chicago Booth. Panelists are:• Deniz Anginer, assistant professor of Finance, Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech;• George Kaufman, John F. Smith Professor of Finance and Economics, Quinlan School of Business, Loyola University Chicago; • Bryan Kelly, assistant professor of Finance, Chicago Booth;• Philip Strahan, professor and John l. Collins, S.J. Chair in Finance, Carroll School of Management, Boston College.
The discussion concludes with “The Current State of ‘Too Big to Fail’: What Are the Most Effective Policy Responses?,” which will be moderated by Douglas Diamond, Merton H. Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at Chicago Booth, and will feature policymakers, business leaders and academics assessing reforms and proposals to deal with “too big to fail.” Panelists include:• John Cochrane, AQR Capital Management Distinguished Service Professor of Finance, Chicago Booth;• John Dugan, partner at Covington & Burling LLP and former comptroller of the Currency (2005-10); • Roberta Romano, Sterling Professor of Law and Director, Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law; • Paul Saltzman, president of The Clearing House Association and executive vice president and general counsel of The Clearing House Payments Company.A reception will follow.Registration and the day’s agenda are available online.