Old school browbeating

6 March 2013 By Antony Currie Follow @AntonyMCurrie

That, anyway, is the pull-no-punches view from Bob Wilmers, the boss of U.S. bank M&T. It is risqué language for a letter to shareholders from a firm that received TARP funds. But his track record makes him one of the few bank veterans whose opinion merits a listen.

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M&T Bank, a top 20 U.S. bank by assets with a $14 billion market value, published its annual report on March 6. In his letter to shareholders, Bob Wilmers, its 77-year-old chairman and chief executive, referred to excessive oversight as “misguided regulatory chemotherapy - where the treatment meant to eliminate cancer cells damages healthy ones in the process.” The analogy is designed to draw attention to his belief that too much regulation crimps banks’ ability to lend and help the economy grow.
He also attacked the complexity added to reporting financial statements by the Federal Accounting Standards Board, arguing that only accounting firms benefit - especially the big four. And he argued that compensation at larger firms is still far too high, with the average pay of CEOs at the nation’s top six banks equating to 234 times the national average for employees.

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