Interviewed on CNBC, H Rodgin Cohen - once called 'arguably the country's leading banking lawyer' by the Wall St Journal - suggested that banks are viewed too suspiciously by regulators at the moment. He said it was 'hard to believe' that 'five regulatory agencies have to approve every interpretation and definition under the Volcker Rule [which regulates their ability to make speculative investments]'. The 70-year old former military lawyer who has been advising JP Morgan on its record fines said he sees banker-regulator relationships as being at one of the tensest points in his career - but he said that reactions to myths that banks had 'captured' the regulators and brought them onto the bankers' side are now 'driving the interaction between the regulators and the banks'. 

Emotional and monetary resources

Banks had done much to resolve previous problems, he said. He told TV interviewers: 'Banks have put an enormous amount of resource, emotional as well as monetary, into improving and into improving compliance.' He added that the problems had come from 'sub-cultures' within the banks, rather than from the dominant cultures of the banks overall. The 800-strong Sullivan & Cromwell locates its offices in the US and abroad in the major financial centres. Source: CNBC