Goldman Sachs Said to Stop Providing Clearing to Some Accounts - Bloomberg.com

Increase regulation has the side effect of increasing expenses. It takes more eyeball, more bodies on each piece of business to meet the new regulations. This is true in the banking industry but it is also true for every single business where increased regulation is foisted upon providers....

While the decision wasn’t a reaction to any of the new U.S. rules for Wall Street, it was partly in response to increasing regulatory scrutiny, one of the people said.

So for all of you people that consider regulation by the US government as necessary and net positive for American society consider these thoughts:

1. What measurable benefits are there to regulation.
2. Does the regulation actually provide greater benefits than costs and is it reasonable to make these cost benefit assumptions?
3. Is it acceptable that these increased costs be passed on to the customers, remember that someone has to pay for them.
4. Is it acceptable that the increased costs of regulation be borne by the smallest customers as is inevitably the case.
5. Does government actually have any idea what they are doing?
6. Will government be able to adjust the regulation as times change since they have been very slow or have not been able to in the past.
7. Is government actually doing this to 'prove' that they are involved in protecting people even if it is ineffective and this will only be proved possibly decades out.

Of course no one should feel sorry for the $1-5 million in asset customers of Goldman Sachs, they will move to other banking companies that will love to serve them as customers, but this is just indicative of what goes on in every company in the business and other industries when new regulations and these new expenses are foisted upon participants.

Take a look at the new requirements droppev upon foreign banks as to their American customer base overseas; these requirements have actually forced some banks to tell their American clients that they can no longer serve them and have closed their accounts and relationships. In Switzerland, some legitimate American businesses and people can longer conduct business or live since they are unable to open bank accounts there. Here in Hong Kong, the largest bank will no longer open local share trading accounts to American customers. So if you are a American passport holder, no need to try with HSBC.


Goldman Sachs Said to Stop Providing Clearing to Some Accounts - Bloomberg.com