Neel Kashkari prepared to fend off critics of his yearlong banking study

The Minneapolis Fed's new president, Neel Kashkari, said he's ready for critics who are already gunning at his plan to study whether giant American banks still pose a risk to the economy.

"It's not going to be without controversy," Kashkari said Tuesday in his first Twin Cities appearance. "But that's OK. I'm the guy who ran the TARP."

He caused a stir week ago when he said the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis would launch a yearlong research effort to come up with "bold, transformational" fixes for a financial system that he believes still poses grave risks to the global economy. He floated ideas like breaking up the big banks, treating them like utilities or taxing their leverage — the amount of debt they hold relative to capital.

Kashkari, a former banker and Treasury official, oversaw the 2008 government bailout of the financial sector called TARP, which became a political punching bag despite its success. That experience, along with the track record of Minneapolis Fed researchers on the "too big to fail" phenomenon, created an opportunity for the bank to bring the issue to the fore at a moment when there's not a crisis.

In the speech at a Greater MSP breakfast in Bloomington, Kashkari announced that the first of several symposiums on the subject is scheduled for April 4. Economists Anat Admati of Stanford and Simon Johnson of MIT will be in Minneapolis for the event, which will be live-streamed for the public.

Kashkari said that ideally the effort will result in a concrete recommendation by the end of the year, but even if Congress shows no interest, the process will be worthwhile if it raises public awareness of the problem: that a financial crisis could still cause large banks to collapse and force taxpayers to bail them out.

Stricter liquidity requirements for banks and stress tests have been steps in the right direction, he said, but "we need to do more."

Asked whether he had heard from any of the 11 other regional Federal Reserve bank presidents about his proposal, he chuckled.

"Some have reached out positively, others I haven't heard from, and I'm looking forward to," Kashkari said. "It goes back to something I said earlier. Do we want to tackle big, important issues or don't we? Do we want to speak up if we see a risk, or don't we? Sometimes when you speak up and you see something, you're going to make some people unhappy."

Kashkari told the audience of business executives at the J.W. Marriott at the Mall of America that his biggest positive surprise about the Twin Cities has been the robustness of the regional economy.

The Ninth District of the Federal Reserve, which includes the Dakotas, Montana, Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin and Michigan, is a microcosm of the national economy, he said, with most major industries represented.

Lawmakers have stressed to him the importance of the Iron Range, where the iron industry is struggling for survival, and he said he plans to visit there.

Asked about his favorite NFL team at the end of the breakfast, the Akron, Ohio, native said he's been a Cleveland Browns fan for 40 years, a "painful experience," but will root for the Vikings unless the two teams play head to head.

Also, he said, he likes the cold, and was prepared for far worse from a Minnesota winter.

"I'm a little bit disappointed," he said, "that the first winter has been so mild."

Adam Belz • 612-673-4405 Twitter: @adambelz