Some days ago, our minister of finance, Grant Robertson, spoke at an INFINZ workshop. This was the same day that he was asked to explain the size of the hole in his budget. Perhaps because of this, Grant’s presentation was modest and a bit shy, but still formidable. Against this background, the audience—students and financial… Read More Monitoring New Zealand’s universities like banks
This week, financial markets were spooked by the write-down of Additional Tier 1 securities of Credit Suisse. Soon after the writedown, a discussion ensued regarding its legitimacy. One camp argues that investors in these securities should have read the instruction manual. See the pointy opinion piece in IFR by Prasad Gollakota, the former co-head of… Read More What happened to the whipping boy of bank capital?
Tomorrow at noon, the RBNZ will reveal its bank capital plans. After many years, the RBNZ will likely decide to increase capital requirements to 17 percent for all banks, with a 1 percent add-on for systemically important banks. Having contributed to capital rules for the Basel Committee and the European Union, for me, most of… Read More RBNZ's capital proposal, the grand finale …
Orr’s monologue on bank capital at the Financial Stability Review presentation this week was a freshening surprise. No longer the wallflower of kiwi prudential supervision, Orr elevated bank capital to the top spot of priorities. Reinforcing Orr’s FSR rant monologue, the reserve bank published a short and clear speech, announcing its position on bank capital: “… New… Read More RBNZ takes position on bank capital
Once in a while I meet bankers and bank regulators, sometimes over a cup of coffee, sometimes over a glass of Pinot Noir. In fact, I will attend an event with RBNZ’s Adrian Orr tomorrow. He will speak at the brand new PwC centre in Wellington. When it comes to bank capital, the narrative shared… Read More When will the RBNZ admit its capital ratio definitions are bent? (And copy APRA’s plan to straighten them?)
In a dash for more transparency, the Reserve Bank launched the Bank Financial Strength Dashboard. This is a truly innovative on-line tool for sharing prudential and financial information on New Zealand banks. The Dashboard contains more than 100 individual metrics on the financial strength of banks. The RBNZ updates the information every quarter. A world standard for bank disclosures? Compared to… Read More RBNZ launches The Dashboard: an innovation in prudential bank disclosures
In a couple of weeks’ time, at the FEBS conference in Rome, Stefan Kerbl and Zsofia Döme from the Austrian national bank (OENB), will present a paper on the comparability of Basel risk weights in the EU banking sector. The short story: according to Stefan and Zsofia there are significant differences in the ways European… Read More How questionable is the comparability of Basel risk weights in the EU banking sector?
This week the EC presented concrete steps to tackle non-performing loans, see this page. Ouch One and Ouch Two Two reasons why this is an interesting proposal. First, it forces banks to deduct any provisioning shortfalls directly from Common Equity Tier 1. Ouch! Second, the proposal amends the CRR, which is a Regulation. And we… Read More The European Commission’s proposal to accelerate the reduction of non-performing loans
In March 2009, the International Accounting Standards Board started an ambitious plan to make accounting for banks easier to understand. In no less than 97 pages, the IABS laid out its plan to reduce complexity in the reporting of financial instruments.* At the time, the IASB did the right thing. The standard in force was too complex.… Read More No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy
It spooked the markets for good reasons, but the leaked EC document on the merger of TLAC and MREL did not receive the attention that it deserves. Yes, Reuters reported on the leaked Information Note from the Commission Services for the European Commission Expert Group on Banking, Payments and Insurance. However I am not sure… Read More Is the European Commission phasing out MREL?
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