Members of the CFA Institute say they support proposals by US president Barack Obama to rein in US banks that are considered to be “too big to fail”, according to a survey of the organisation’s members.

Some 58 per cent of 1,471 respondents to a survey said they supported moves to curb such banks. Meanwhile, 68 per cent of respondents said they strongly support/support proposals to separate proprietary trading and insured commercial banks.

President Obama has proposed splitting the retail, deposit-taking and conventional lending parts of banks from the trading side, arguing that this will make the financial system less prone to the danger of depositors losing their money in the event of a market blow-up. In essence, the proposals would take the US banking system back to the regulatory regime of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932, which was repealed by the Clinton administration in the late 1990s.

“Our members are acutely aware of the potential dangers and conflicts of interest that come with commercial banks engaging in proprietary trading,” said Jim Allen, CFA, head of capital markets policy at CFA Institute. “They want banks to focus on their specialty—taking deposits and making loans.”

CFA Institute members were also asked if the US government has made adequate progress on regulatory reforms aimed at preventing another crisis. Some 67 per cent said the government had made “little progress.” Only 24 per cent of respondents indicated “some progress” had been made.