Discipline against the few offending banks and their outside auditors would have provided a warning to other organizations. Problems cannot be solved without addressing their root causes. At times new rules just create more work. It may appear the problem is solved because “something” was done.
But unless the root cause is addressed, the problem will recur at a cost to the private sector of additional regulatory burden. And let me remind you again that one of the root causes of recent events is the outside auditor failing to serve both the board of directors and interested third parties. Discipline against auditors should occur when accounting standards have been manipulated.