One Toe over The Line:Banks get the go-ahead to enter Wall Street turf

Big banks get the go-ahead to enter Wall Street turf

The Fed is on its way to giving banks an invitation to shoot craps with the taxpayer's money." So said Michigan Democrat John Dingell, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, with a touch of hyperbole. The object of his barb: a Fed ruling last week that will permit five leading bank holding companies -- Bankers Trust New York, Chase Manhattan, Citicorp, J.P. Morgan and Security Pacific -- to buy and sell corporate bonds. The decision will enable the financial institutions to move, within strict limits, onto the turf of Wall Street firms, which have been encroaching on the banking...

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