In The AFR I argue that notwithstanding the claims of politicians that they are ending "too-big-to-fail banks", the truth is that they remain alive and well---the only hope is that the four majors are ultimately succeeded by a "middle-weight eight". Excerpt enclosed below: "This presages three insights. The first is that APRA is right to focus on ensuring the banks never face the spectre of insolvency in the first place by maximising their going-concern equity capital to "unquestionably" strong levels on a risk-weighted and non-risk-weighted basis. The second is Joe Hockey's 2010 call for a "social compact between our taxpayer-guaranteed banks, their shareholders, and government". The message is that banks and their investors should accept more modest returns, and a narrower scope of commercial activities, in exchange for the profound public help they receive. Yet since the big bank bosses continue to cling to world-beating return targets and high dividend payout ratios, and are trying to shift the entire cost of additional capital on to customers, they evidently have no intention of buying into this bargain. Read more here (VIEW LINK)