The Great Recession has given currency to the ancient legal term "cease and desist," as bank after bank gets smacked with an order from government regulators to shape up or else. Baltimore's 1st Mariner Bank got a "cease" letter a couple months ago, basically giving it until June to get more capital or risk being seized.

Now, reports American Banker and relayed by Calculated Risk, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is trashing "cease and desist" and replacing it with "consent order," a term AB says is used by other regulators.

We're getting a little Orwellian here. Most cease and desist orders were already "consent" orders in the sense that banks had to stipulate (not contest) the facts as found by the FDIC or challenge them at a hearing. In both cases the bank is consenting only because government heavies are giving it the fifth degree.

But consent sounds so much nicer than the categorical C&D, don't you think? Cease and desist is the FDIC in crouch position, service revolver drawn. "Back away from the subprime mortgages!" Consent makes it sound like the FDIC and the banks are friends!