The New “Ism” of Banking: Fundamentalism

It’s called Fundamentalism, and if you’re not on board, you will be.

This new ism of banking espouses a return to core banking principles, market structure, and credit underwriting.

If you need a pied piper for Fundamentalism, look no further than Chris Whalen of InstitutionalRiskAnalytics.com, who proudly declared himself a card-carring Fundamentalist last night during his speech before the Risk Management Association of New York. Whalen is vocal (make that really vocal) on sound, well, everything in banking.

Some principles of Fundamentalism:

* “The real economy has to validate the financial economy.”

* “Everyone needs to understand the security being traded.”

* The level of proof must be higher to do any deal.

Sign me up.