NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- If you believe our leaders, we can't find anyone to reform the financial system other than tax evaders and undistinguished and overpaid career regulators.

When Robert Rubin explains away the financial crisis by saying "nobody was prepared for this" we have to just shrug and accept it. See full story.

How else could we end up getting such yawn-inducing candidates as Tim Geithner, who was confirmed as Treasury Secretary late Monday, Mary Schapiro for the Securities and Exchange Commission, Dick Parsons as chairman of Citigroup Inc. C, -2.12% and Neel Kashkari holding the keys to the bailout vault?

Neither the old or new administration has inspired much confidence with its picks for top jobs. They are flawed candidates, each with a history that requires the public to grit its teeth, hold its nose and hope for the best.

Maybe in four years we'll be tipping our hats, wondering why we didn't buy brokerage ETFs KCE, -0.42% , but until then we are left to wonder why President Obama has overlooked bankers with far better pedigrees for top jobs. No, we're not just talking pie-in-the-sky candidates such as Jamie Dimon at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. JPM, -0.84% , but real candidates who would be willing to take reform roles.

What follows is an admittedly incomplete list. No massive search was done to come up with these three names. But if I can come up with these people off the top of my head, why can't anyone in Washington find these guys?

John Allison

The chairman of BB&T Corp. BBT, not only led his bank through the dicey mortgage waters, but has been drafted as a populist hero for his stand against the government's banking bailout.

It was Allison who wrote a stinging letter to Congress on Sept. 23, arguing that the contemplated bailout would reward poorly managed banks at the expense of properly managed banks like Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T.

Allison, 58, urged some controversial reforms like the elimination of "fair value" accounting, but as someone who built BB&T into one of the top 15-biggest banks by assets in the U.S. market during the last 30 years, and largely avoided the toxic mortgage mess, his record is hard to debate. Plus, he doesn't mince words.

"The primary beneficiaries of the proposed rescue are Goldman Sachs GS, -1.14% and Morgan Stanley MS, -2.35% , " Allison wrote. "The Treasury has a number of smart individuals, including Hank Paulson. However, Treasury is totally dominated by investment bankers. They do not have knowledge of the commercial banking industry."

Allison retired as chief executive at yearend. The bank is in the capable hands of Kelly King, whom Allison groomed for years as his successor. The only question I'd have for Allison is if he wanted to run the Treasury or the Fed.

Dick Kovacevich

Once Allison has picked his job, the smart thing to do would be to bring in Kovacevich, who like Allison has relinquished day-to-day control at Wells Fargo Corp. WFC, -2.35% , in San Francisco, and has settled into a role as chairman.

Wells made its big splash by agreeing to acquire a near-failed Wachovia Corp. last year. A lot of people made much of the fact Wells Fargo avoided the need of government backing and was willing to pay a decent premium, $15.1 billion when announced in October.

I like Wells and Kovacevich, 65, for other reasons. For one, Wells has reported a $6.7 billion profit during the last four quarters ending Sept. 30. Wells has improved its Tier 1 Capital levels. It's avoided toxic paper. It's getting its message across: customers who have fled troubled competitors are putting their cash with Wells.

This success is largely due to Kovacevich who served as CEO from 1998 to 2007, and didn't bow to pressure even though rivals such as Countrywide and Washington Mutual were growing their mortgage operations faster than Wells Fargo earlier in the decade.

Ralph Babb

Finally, a nod to Ralph Babb, the 60-year-old chairman and chief executive of Dallas-based Comerica Inc. CMA, -2.12% . Babb isn't even as well known as the other banking executives, and to be honest, he's a mystery to us who follow Wall Street in the Northeast.

But if there's anything that recommends him, it is this: Comerica is the biggest bank in Michigan. Knowing what's happening to the auto industry, how it lost tens of thousands of jobs, is there anyone who isn't impressed that Comerica made nearly $200 million during the last 12 months?

Here's another reason to bring him to Washington: the bank only had $133 million in charge offs in the fourth quarter on a balance sheet of more than $65 billion, and that was double the rate of a year ago.

Analysts, such as Peter Winter at Bank of Montreal, note with a hint of astonishment that credit has held better at Comerica than many of its competitors. Consider that unemployment in Michigan is now about 10% and the state lost 30,000 jobs in October and November alone, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Sure, Comerica has had trouble. Babb had to cut jobs. Profits fell to just $3 million in the fourth quarter. He's been criticized for abandoning Detroit, where the bank had been based for more than 150 years. And given economic conditions, Babb and Comerica are definitely going to have a tough 2009.

Popular or not, Babb has done enough that he would merit an interview in my book.

Smart, or look smart

Though they didn't have the senior positions our three top candidates had, there are some other people out there who saw this financial crisis coming and ought to be rewarded by getting a chance to lead us out of the woods.

It's a group that includes people like Christopher Wood, a chief strategist a Credit Lyonaisse's Asia brokerage who told investors to get out of the U.S. mortgage securities market in 2005 and to sell U.S. and European banks in 2007.

It includes Peter Schiff, a regular on business TV shows, who warned against a real estate collapse. Alone, that prediction was hardly unique, but what set Schiff apart was what he forecast as the fallout: deep recession, credit crunch and bank failures. Yes, that sounds familiar.

Charles Schwab hasn't done too badly either. His firm has prospered even though it didn't build and package mortgage, asset or commercial mortgage-backed securities. Charles Schwab Co. SCHW, -1.16% simply is a retail brokerage. Imagine that.

And how about Paris Welch? She was the mortgage lender who wrote U.S. regulators in 2006 warning them about lax lending standards. "Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories."

There is one knock on all of these candidates: none has any significant government experience.

Of course, judging by the government's performance, you already knew that.