The chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. shares his thoughts on regulatory reform, the value of market data and other issues

Gary Stern proposes achieving the objectives of regulatory restructuring without going through the process itself.

A proposed bank merger and acquisition (M&A) provides a unique opportunity to address too big to fail concerns—the problem of big banks taking undue risks due to creditors’ perceptions that government policymakers will bail them out to prevent spillovers from bank collapse. Under a...