The Glass Steagall act was crafted after the 1927 market crash for very good reason. Banks that could play both sides of banking and brokerage became too powerful, played both sides of the investment and risk equation and found ways to cheat investors out of their money. If this sounds familiar the banks paid big money in the 1980s to repeal Glass Steagall and have reaped huge rewards.
Banks range of business needs to be limited to banking and brokerage for investment purposes needs to be limited to brokerage. Credit card companies and banks need to be clearly prevented from forming alliances and price fixing to rip off the consumer. They need to be heavily regulated and monitored with strong penalties for violations with prison sentences and heavy fines for executives and BOD members.