Sanders' Seeks Limit on Size of Banks Posted by Association of Vermont Credit Unions on 4:31 PM

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders this week introduced legislation to apply a cap on financial institutions, and break up JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. The Sanders bill has strong support from the Independent Community Banking Association (ICBA) which says that “the greatest ongoing threat to the safety and soundness of the U.S. banking system is the dominance of a small number of too-big-to-fail mega-banks.”

Sanders' asset cap would require a bank with assets collectively representing more than 3% of the country’s GDP (about $584B) to reduce its size within 2 two years.

Sanders says that the nation’s four largest financial institutions — JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup — are on average nearly 80% bigger than they were before their government provide 2008 bailout, and control nearly 36% of all bank deposits.  The 6 largest institutions have over $10 trillion in assets, equivalent to 54% of annual U.S. GDP.

No consideration of Sanders' bill is expected at least until next year.  Read online for more details