The Bair necessities

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chairman Sheila Bair has argued that systemically important financial institutions should hold more capital as a disincentive to growth, while a new entity should be set up to manage the orderly resolution of troubled 'too-big-to-fail' firms. The proposals have received a mixed response from former regulators, but seem to have struck a chord with the US Treasury. Peter Madigan reports

Regulators have proposed a variety of fixes to the problems exposed by the financial crisis. Few, however, have been as bold as those suggested by Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), in her testimony to the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on May 6.

Pre-empting many of the measures the Obama administration would go on to officially