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- Newslink Trends-The Global Strategic Perspective
- Juniper Research says digital wallet users to exceed 4.4 billion by 2025, as mobile drives digital payments’ revolution
- Criminals exploit COVID-19 pandemic with rise in scams targeting victims online
- Equifax says Open Banking proving pivotal to pandemic lending
- Consumer confidence in banks, credit card providers and investments remain stable as demand supercharges digital finance says Toluna research
- Mintos says Europeans are starting to embrace investing
- US banks see IT modernisation as a way to improve customer experience
- Risk mitigation in global trade depends on digitisation-Andrew Raymond, CEO, Bolero International comments
- Juniper Research new study says the volume of B2B payments facilitated by non-banks will exceed 53 billion in 2022, from a COVID-related low of 38 billion in 2020
- CMA issues fifth publication over 3 years of the service quality league table of personal and business current account providers
- Barclays says scammers take advantage of COVID-19, cashing in on nations’ uncertainty
- S&P Global report says financial market infrastructure sector's earnings likely to cool off In second half
- Global banking market capitalisation slumps by over 30% amid pandemic says Buyshares research
- Digital wallet spend in Europe & North America to increase by 40% in 2019, finds study
- Juniper forecasts mobile money transactions will exceed 200 billion by 2024
- Banks can save the world from climate change, says former UN climate chief
- Research by NatWest reveals gender divide over attitudes to saving
- Europe’s big bank problem: too much capital is trapped in the US, says Scope
- Later-Life lending market set to almost double in the next 10 years, finds report
- Barclays/Cebr report challenges nation to think differently about wealth
- Fifth of UK investors looking to debt investment, new research reveals
- Regtech will play a more important role in PSD2, says Mitek
- Banks turn to Fintech partnerships to improve customer experience, finds Fraedom
- New industry code to tackle fraud must deliver, says Which?
- New TTF report highlights loss of trust in financial services
- Arxan highlights financial app vulnerability epidemic
- SAS asks whether banks really need to choose between operations and innovation
- Which? raises alarm as almost 1,700 free ATMs become fee-charging
- Financial wellness affects half of peoples’ mental or physical health, finds report
- Study finds traditional financial institutions embrace Fintech disruption
- Grass is greener for environmentally friendly businesses, finds Barclays
- Prospective homeowners would consider a 40-year mortgage to escape renting, finds Santander
- Millennials’ needs are changing the face of banking industry, says new report
- FS is putting consumer data at risk by failing to protect mobile apps, says Arxan
- A lack of belief in their ability holds 28% women back in work, says Cambridge & Counties
- ‘Which?’ reveals Scotland has lost over a third of its bank branches in eight years
- Next downturn unlikely to be as bad as 2008, according to S&P
- FCA reveals findings from first cryptoassets consumer research
- US consumers favour single mobile app for banking and payments
- Banks suffering major IT shutdowns every day, ‘Which?’ reveals
- The US will be a key offshore centre in 2019, says GlobalData
- Debit industry changes markedly in 10 years of the Debit Issuer Study
- UK's ‘Big Five’ face ‘too big to compete’ as small challengers secure stellar returns
- Banks as vulnerable now as before crash, says new study
- Leverage ratio a constant conundrum for European and US banks, says SNL
14th October 2011
EC President seeks leap in bank capital
European Commission President Jose Barroso has urged a major increase in Core Tier 1 (CT1) Capital for the systemically important European banks as a way to solve the concerns regarding the banks exposure to South European sovereign debt. When asked to quantify this he suggested that as a temporary measure the banks be required to hold 9% CT1. To bring this in quickly would be to effectively short circuit the slow introduction of Basel III requiring banks to hold between 7% and 9.5% CT1 with the systemically important at the 9%-9.5% level. It also compares with a 5% pass level under slightly stressed conditions for the second quarter European Stress test.
Voters in a number of countries and notably Germany are reluctant to provide finance to Greece and other countries believing that it would be rewarding those counties for running up unaffordable debts and penalising the prudent and cautious countries inhabitants. Barrosa presumably is banking on the fact that the voters in the not at risk countries would be more willing to assist their own banks to be strengthened to a European agreed 'safe level'.
Borroso seems to have made this proposal without first holding any extensive consultations as was the case with his other recent intervention proposing the introduction of the Tobin tax (a tax on all financial transactions between financial institutions). It will be argued that the proposal places an unreasonable burden on banks that have never held or have already got rid of the majority of the sovereign debt in countries subject to repayment ability speculation. On the other hand even a 9% CT1 would leave certain other major banks quite weak if there were significant sovereign debt or bank bond writedowns in countries such as Spain and Italy.
Josef Ackermann, Deutsche Bank CEO and Chairman of the Institute of International Finance, criticised the proposal arguing that the only way for banks to move quickly to the capital levels proposed would be with state assistance. The consequence would be higher sovereign hence defeating the benefit. He added that Deutsche Bank would do everything in its power to fight such a proposal.