Prince Alwaleed bin Talal: "Our goal is to get things back to normal"

Alwaleed stands firm

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Is the Federal Reserve best suited to the role of systemic regulator? If they don’t sleep at the wheel again, sure they are, but if they do, you’ll have no banks left. It depends on behaviour. It depends on how strong the internal controls are, how strong the chairman, CEO and the board of directors are and how much control they have. It also depends on how much control and supervision the Federal Reserve is going to have over the banks.

If you’re asking me could this ever happen again, you bet – if people go back to their old habits. People have short memories. They can go back to old scenarios, unfortunately.

You need strong internal controls, a strong chairman, CEO and a knowledgeable board. Not a cosmetic board of directors nor a media magnate or someone from industrial projects. You need to have bankers, people with background in the financial industry.

You also have to have strong regulation and supervision by the Federal Reserve, FDIC, SEC, whatever.