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17 May 2015

Reuters: Borders undermine drive to solve "too-big-to-fail" banking problem


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Regulators are worried that patchy application in Europe and beyond of new rules to solve the problem of banks that are "too big to fail" could make it harder to avoid a repeat of the mayhem that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers.


They point to likely inconsistencies in how banks will be treated under the rules that are being written, not only between European authorities in and outside the euro zone but also in jurisdictions further afield such as the United States.

Even if these problems can be overcome, regulators also fear clearing houses that will increasingly handle deals in the $630 trillion financial derivatives and swaps market could become a new generation of too-big-to-fail institutions.

Policymakers around the world are now forcing banks to build up safety cushions that are big enough that they could ride out a future crisis, or could be allowed to fail without fear of setting off a systemic meltdown.

The policymakers are putting their faith in two measures:

  • New "resolution" mechanisms are being introduced for the restructuring or orderly winding down of a collapsing bank so that vital parts of its business, such as customer accounts and payments, could continue operating.
  • Banks are also being forced to sell "bail-in" bonds to investors. Holders of the bonds agree to bear losses if the bank's core capital falls to a dangerously low level during a crisis. Investors might alternatively have their bonds converted into shares in the bank, but the public should not be called on to fund a rescue, as in the past.

Under an initiative of the Group of 20 leading industrial and developing economies, the world's top 30 lenders - many of them European such as Deutsche Bank and HSBC - must issue bail-in bonds. But rules being created by national and pan-national regulators to cover a wider range of banks may differ.

In the euro zone, the newly-launched Single Resolution Board (SRB) will decide on the quantity of bail-in bonds that the top 150 banks based in the currency bloc must issue. But elsewhere in the European Union, such as in Britain, national watchdogs will set the rules. The same goes for decisions on whether to close down a bank.

Full article



© Reuters


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