A servant of two masters

17 June 2021Bankscentral banks, corporate bonds, leverage ratios, SLR, TLACNick Dunbar

Caught between a wall of QE cash and a web of capital rules, what is left for bank CEOs to do? The evidence from securities holdings, bond issuance and TLAC.

Facing up to JP Morgan’s leverage relief threats

18 March 2021BanksBank of America, Covid-19, Federal Reserve, JP Morgan, leverage ratios, regulationNick Dunbar

The banking giant warned that it might slash its vast balance sheet if the Fed doesn’t roll over temporary leverage ratio relief. Could it unleash a wave of turmoil in wholesale markets if it doesn’t get what it wants?

Of Fear and Models

22 July 2013BanksBasel rules, BNP Paribas, leverage ratios, risk models, sovereignNick Dunbar

My last post on Anglo-Irish Bank got me thinking some more about the question of trust and banking. The subject came up in conversations I recently had with senior bankers - BNP Paribas co-chief operating officer Philippe Bordenave and Deutsche Bank CFO Stefan Krause. I asked them about the declining trust in bank risk models,…

Bank leverage and the lessons of the crisis

19 March 2013Articles, BanksAccounting, Cyprus, deposits, leverage ratiosNick Dunbar

"The final banking crisis, which terminated in the banking holiday early in March 1933" - So begins a dark passage in Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz's Monetary History of the United States, which last Friday arose from ancient slumbers in the eastern Mediterranean. The turmoil sparked by the proposed tax on Cyprus bank depositors makes…