More generally, these regulations, if crafted carefully, should enhance market efficiency by providing consumers with more complete, consistent, and timely information; by promoting consumer awareness and shopping; and by opening the way for moreeffective competition. That is surely our intention with our Truth-in-Lending and Truth-in-Saving regulations, for example.
The same factors that make banks candidates for supervision and regulation--their central role in the financing process coupled with the benefits of the safety net provided to banks by government--have also made banks prime candidates for lawmakers to select as vehicles to achieve desired social and economic objectives.