Regulations introduced since the financial crisis of 2008-09 have improved the financial system, but not enough, says Sheila Bair, former chairwoman of the FDIC.

"There are new regulations that are substantial," she tells Yahoo. "It's safer, but it's not as safe as it should be."

Not surprisingly, then, Bair thinks the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, which celebrating its second anniversary this month, is helpful but leaves problems yet to solve.

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“We would have liked tougher conditions,” she says. “Net, net Dodd-Frank is a good law. . . . [But] it leaves a lot of the reforms to regulatory implementation, and there have been some problems there.”

The too-big-to-fail issue illustrates the cup-half-full/cup-half-empty predicament, says Bair, now a senior adviser to The Pew Charitable Trusts. There has been “measurable progress” on this issue, with funding costs up and credit ratings down for big banks, she says.

“That’s based on the market understanding that aren’t going to be more bailouts.” But on the half-empty side, “we still don’t have breakup plans for them [big banks],” Bair notes.

Bloomberg columnist Deborah Solomon echoes Bair, lamenting that more of Dodd-Frank hasn’t been implemented.

“The public should ask itself why Washington won't do what it said it would at a time when the consequences of risky behavior couldn't be clearer,” Solomon writes.

“Let's hope Washington comes to its senses before another crisis devastates an already hobbled economy.”

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