U.S. banking regulator Bair causes stir by telling Reuters that banks will need to restructure

U.S. banking regulator Sheila Bair told the Reuters Future Face of Finance Summit that big financial institutions may need to restructure or reduce the size of their operations so that they can be more easily liquidated if they run into trouble. Her comments in the exclusive interview on Feb. 28 caused a stir, as they were a warning shot for the likes of Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, which are expected to submit their so-called living wills to regulators by the end of the year. Bair, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, also said investors need to accept that they will get lower returns from banks that hold higher capital and run safer operations. Dow Jones picked up the story crediting Reuters, as did Forbes.com. The article also received good play on news sites such as the widely read Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, FoxBusiness.com and Yahoo.