Introduction: the columbo approach: a bird's eye view of the book -- Act i: the purpose of banks : what banks do and why -- Money, guns and lawyers : the business of banking -- The origins of baking and the services banks provide : customers, investors and other stakeholders -- Out of sigh out...

Banks' leverage choices represent a delicate balancing act. Credit discipline argues for more leverage, while balance-sheet opacity and ease of asset substitution argue for less. Meanwhile, regulatory safety nets promote ex post financial stability, but also create perverse incentives for banks...

This note discusses some issues in bank closure policy from a financial stability standpoint and how these issues have evolved since we first raised the question of how a reputation-driven divergence of interests between bank regulators and taxpayers may distort bank closure policy in our 1993...