Today the Wall Street Journal reported on an alleged loophole in EU bank capital rules. The loophole pertains to deferred tax assets (DTAs), a regulatory area where tax rules and accounting rules meet. Apparently some countries exploit a DTA loophole: Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece. Uh oh, these countries, the usual suspects. There is something really wrong here.… Read More The Italian DTAs
The European Commission is holding a public consultation to seek views from all interested parties on their experience of Regulation 1606/2002 (‘the IAS Regulation’). The results of this public consultation will feed into the European Commission’s evaluation of the IAS Regulation. This is a great initiative, and I encourage you to fill out the questionnaire. See… Read More EU consults on the impact of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
Will EBA will ever get it right when it comes to banks disclosures? After last week’s publication of proposed disclosure guidelines for banks, I am afraid that European bank disclosures will remain the wallflower of bank regulation … for some time at least. In the year of the AQR and the stress test, one would expect the… Read More EBA’s ongoing struggle with bank disclosures
This recent social science research network paper (A primer on regulatory bank capital adjustments) examines regulatory adjustments. These are adjustments that banks apply to book equity to calculate Tier 1 regulatory capital. The paper, relying on U.S. data, documents a decreasing relation between regulatory adjustments and bank solvency. Specifically, low solvency banks benefit from regulatory… Read More Do Regulatory Bank Capital Adjustments actually work?
Among the many publications that the EBA posted on its website last week, the Technical advice to the Commission (EC) on the treatment of unrealized gains deserves attention. Not only because of its content, but also because of the clarity, depth, and breadth of covering the issue of unrealized gains. Here is the context: EBA’s advice… Read More EBA advises Europe to overturn Basel III rule on unrealized gains
Reuters reported on a leaking source from the European Banking Authority who mentioned that Europe has set itself a “completely illusionary” timetable for the next round of bank health checks. An interesting Catch 22 thus ensues: adhering to a strict timetable would lead to cutting corners, thus endangering the reputations of European bank supervisors. Not-adhering… Read More The European Bank Asset Quality Review, an inconvenience, but for whom?
Lots of twitter-folks, especially law shunning economists, have only a slight clue as to what the Basel III implementation in Europe actually entails. So, here’s my briefings on Basel III. Note, I write this post as an economist, who, after a decade of academia subjected himself to five years of a regulators’ commitment to help… Read More Basel III’ is Europe – Part I
EBA yesterday published a Discussion Paper (DP) on the exclusion of unrealized gains from regulatory capital. As an advice to the European Commission it basically supports the current European system of prudential filters – that is, only the unrealized gains part (banks will have to include unrealized losses into capital). EBA’s departure from Basel III… Read More EBA leans against Basel III in excluding unrealized gains from Regulatory Capital
Just returning from a talk by Sir David Tweedie. Funny as always and sharp, he discussed a short history on accounting standard setting. He spared few parties, with France taking most of his flak. Perhaps Sir David has a point. Accounting standard setting would be different if France was not involved. But why blame France?… Read More What actually is Basel’s contribution to the new IASB impairment model?
It should not come as a surprise that the discussion on the in/exclusion of Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income from Regulatory Capital continues. JPM highlighted one reason for keeping the discussion on AOCI going, as most of it evaporated – with consequences. Sad. In the spring of 2008, just days apart from the collapse of Bear… Read More JPM and Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income – a neat example of regulatory capture.