I have a real problem reconciling the tough talk coming out of the FSA with the Treasury's desire to see credit growth return to the happy days before the bubble burst.
Financial regulators may in the future ban financial products if they are too risky or too complex, Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, said today. Indicating that the City regulator is embarking on a dramatic change in the "philosophy" of its approach to overseeing firms, Turner said his review into regulation due next month would lead to a "banking revolution".
He said banks would be expected to put "several times" more capital aside for the risky positions held in their trading books – one of the lessons learned from the current financial crisis.
Is this the Turner as in the pensions Turner Report...
ReplyDeleteWell of course what you are pointing to is the simple impossibility of squaring the circle, since (a) the banks are having quite enough difficulty recapitalising as it is, and (b) the risk of default on even plain vanilla loans will be rising for quite a while.
ReplyDeleteBut on the purely rational aspects of the debate, I hope talk of 'banning' instruments goes away. They should just be made more expensive in CapAd terms, by suitable & prescriptive CapAd formulae. Then, any entity that actually knows what it is doing and can justify the CapAd involved, is free to indulge in the 'complex' or 'risky' instrument for the benefits it brings to them (profit, or hedge, or whatever it's for).
Same goes for comp schemes.
Complete nonsense
ReplyDeleteThe momnent this crisis is past, this regulatory zeal will end.
What will the regulators do when the city of london starts to loose biz to other less regulated areas?
Where's that horse????
ReplyDelete