Commercial banking firms now engage in activities traditionally associated with investment banking, such as securities underwriting. The combination of these activities under a single corporate umbrella did not contribute meaningfully to the financial crisis.
In my view, losses at the commercial banks were more importantly a consequence of bad credit underwriting and the failure of risk management systems to keep up with innovation and the explosive growth in securitization – developments that were not fundamentally driven by the repeal of Glass-Steagall. Size limits There are also calls to further limit the size or systemic footprint of financial firms.