The more things change, the more they stay the same. The guidance banks received in the 1863 from the first Comptroller of the Currency could easily be cut-and-pasted into an alert from the modern-day regulator.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency celebrated its 150th anniversary this week with a day-long conference in Boston. A hand-out to attendees included a letter to national banks drafted by Hugh McColloch, the first comptroller, in an effort to advise bank executives of their responsibilities and his expectations. Much of the letter wouldn’t have been out-of-place in a Dodd-Frank Act stump speech or Volcker rule pitch.
