On April 4, Mr. Cohen appeared on Fox Business to comment on banking and regulation, and discuss the Cyprus bailout and his outlook for the U.S. banking industry. He explained that there is reason to be concerned about Cyprus and other havens for offshore money, “not just because they are tax havens or money laundering havens, but because they are also regulatory havens – and that is part of the real scandal of Cyprus.” Mr. Cohen continued, “what really happened there is a total failure of bank regulation.”

When asked about his outlook for the safety and soundness of the U.S. banking system, Mr. Cohen expressed optimism. He said the United States is better off than it has been in recent years. “We have a much more robust regulatory system; we have a much more robust supervisory system. In a supervisory capacity, the regulators are far more scrutinizing than they ever have been,” Mr. Cohen said. Although not all policies are complete, the ground work has been laid, and Mr. Cohen is comfortable that the Federal Reserve is on the right course. “We have much stronger capital requirements and capital compliance, and much stronger liquidity requirements and liquidity compliance, but much of the other regulation is still to be implemented.”