The Too Big To Fail Global 30

Global regulators have identified the 30 banks that are systemic risks to the entire global financial system should they fail, and five are in North America:

Compiled under the guidance of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), an international body of regulators and central bankers, the list is part of an effort to pre-empt the spread of systemic risks in the event of a future financial crisis.

Those featuring in the list will also be asked to write so-called "living wills" that outline plans to wind up banks in the aftermath of a crisis.

The FSB was established in the summer of 2009 to address the dangers posed by systemically-important, cross-border financial institutions through better supervision and co-ordination.

The list in full, as cited by the FT:

North American banks: Goldman Sachs , JP Morgan Chase , Morgan Stanley , Bank of America-Merrill Lynch , Royal Bank of Canada.

UK banks: HSBC , Barclays , Royal Bank of Scotland , Standard Chartered .

Continental European banks: UBS, Credit Suisse, Societe Generale, BNP Paribas, Santander, BBVA, Unicredit, Banca Intesa, Deutsche Bank, ING.

Japanese banks: Mizuho, Sumitomo Mitsui, Nomura, Mitsubishi UFJ.

Insurers: AXA, Aegon, Allianz, Aviva, Zurich and Swiss Re.

Lot of banks, and six insurers.  These are basically the world financial institutions that can never, ever be allowed to fail.  Ever.

Every reason then that these 30 banks and insurers should immediately be the first ones broken up so that they are no longer a systemic risk should they fail.

But that of course makes too much sense.  Too Big To Fail has just gone global.