September 27, 2013

The ECB’s bank asset quality review should also look for what is NOT on the banks’ balances.

Sir, Patrick Jenkins reports on a “Bank review to asses lending exposures”, September 27, and which, in words of Mario Draghi, will take place “to dispel this fog that lies over bank balance sheets”. Let us pray that what they find is not too scary.

That said, what the regulators will not be looking for, primarily because they do not care a shit about the real economy, are all those really productive “risky” bank assets that should have been on bank balances, had these not been scared away by the regulators senseless risk-weighted capital requirements.

How and when will we be able to dispel the fog that lies over the regulators’ eyes?