An Old-Fashioned Banker

It was refreshing to read the latest article by Joe Nocera. It was about Robert Wilmers, head of M&T Bank, which in today's bizarre so-called banking world is considered a quaint not with-it organization by its fellow large banks. Wilmers, at 77, is , I suppose, considered an old-fashioned banker. He believes in such things as restoring the Glass-Steagall Act. He thinks that the bank’s mission is to “find ways to continue to attract deposits, make sound loans and grow in accordance with our historic credit quality standards”. It is not designed to make tons of money trading securities, yet that's where the TBTF banks make most of their money. In Wilmer's view derivatives should be regulated. 

This old-fashioned banker has done very well for M&T. "When he took it over, M&T had $2 billion in assets; today, its assets exceed $68 billion, and it’s one of the most highly regarded regional bank holding companies. It has also been one of the best performing stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index; indeed, M&T was one of only two banks in the S.& P. 500 that didn’t cut its dividend during the financial crisis."

We need - and need desperately - more bankers like Wilmers.