Top bank regulator suggests partitioning big banks to replace Dodd-Frank rules

A top regulator on Monday proposed replacing post-crisis banking rules by partitioning megabanks, a partial throwback to the Depression-era Glass-Steagall law that divided traditional banking from investment banking and insurance.

Thomas Hoenig, the vice chairman for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation known as a staunch advocate of ending “too-big-to-fail” in banking, on Monday suggested dividing traditional banks from investment banks, insurance companies and hedge funds within the corporate structure of megabanks, and then releasing the parent companies from many requirements they face currently under the 2010 Dodd-Frank law.