The complexities of creating a revamped, centralized clearing market for swaps and other derivatives markets also pose challenges and raise the possibility of higher costs, according to Jerry del Meisser, co-chief executive at Barclay's Capital.

"A lot of businesses saw [centralized derivatives clearing] as an opportunity," he said at the panel. "Now we're seeing that this is really, really hard."

Changes in capital requirements are another factor likely to prove costly to the financial sector. As higher Dodd-Frank margin requirements and compliance costs dovetail with Basel III guidelines that will require a 9.5% capital reserve by 2019, the result will be more money removed from the table.

Milford, for her part, points out that all this risk will have to go somewhere. "It if goes to an unregulated part of the economy or to an area that does not know how to manage risk, you'll find out whether this risk is systemic after the fact," she said.