Too big to fail or just too big?

BEFORE I start, if you want a summary of some of the most inane stupidities of the most dangerous and inane Trump administration, read New York magazine's article, "The drama lover's guide to the new Trump books." It is for those who don't want to read the books but would like to know the most salacious revelations. Some are quite funny but frightening.

In 1998, my ex-boss and always mentor, Rafael Buenaventura, who was winding up his 10 years as CEO of PCIBank and was going to be BSP governor a year later, told me he thought in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian crisis and increasing globalization, local banks would be disadvantaged competing with the global banks. For him this would be so even in consumer and retail banking. This was another era where Glass-Steagall was about to be repealed, which would then allow American commercial banks to compete with investment banks and investment banks to take deposits and so on. JP Morgan could go beyond being only a commercial bank and add investment banking again and take on Morgan Stanley, which became the Morgan investment bank when they were divided after Glass-Steagall forced them to choose whether to be a commercial or investment bank in the 1930s. Citi would merge with Travelers, which had bought Salomon Smith Barney to do the same. It was also at the peak of the 1990s Clinton boom in the US, when America was dominant in the aftermath of the Cold War and when Asia was reeling from the 1997 Asian financial crisis. In consumer and commercial banking, the global and regional giants like Citi and HSBC were tying up desired partners for affinity credit cards and standardizing practices for personal loan and commercial loans, reducing processing time and costs.