The FT notes:
Switzerland upped the ante in a global regulatory assault on the banking industry on Thursday as its central bank warned that Zurich was examining the forced shrinkage of banking groups such as UBS and Credit Suisse to contain the risks posed by their size.
The central bank is looking at imposing constraints on the size of its biggest domestic banks unless global policymakers can come up with a new system to deal with large banks when they fail.
Philipp Hildebrand, vice-chairman of the Swiss National Bank, said: “There can be no more taboos, given our experiences of the last two years.”
“There are advantages to size . . . [but] in the case of the large international banks, the empirical evidence would seem to suggest that these institutions have long exceeded the size needed to make full use of these advantages,” Mr Hildebrand said as the central bank unveiled its stability report.
So we split major banks in two.
But they still are opaque.
They still won’t lend to customers.
They still play the casino.
They still trade with each other so that the risk is systemic, not specific.
And then what’s very clear is that we’ve got nowhere by doing so.
It’s not size that matters. It’s the fact that the model is wrong. Shrinking it will not make it fit the need we have. Changing it will.
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Very true, Richard. Two failed medium sized banks are the same sized problem as one failed big one.
To start with, either investment banks need to be separated from retail banks again or savers need to be made clearly away of the gambles being made with their saving by the investment side of the bank.
I favour separation… or a we need a public awareness campaign to warn the public away from the banks in favour of the few remaining building societies.
At that point we would still need the ridiculous swings in house prices in the UK sorted out via mandatory deposits, income multiple mortgage limits and more house building or mass voluntary emigration.
The way to sort out ‘the ridiculous swings in house prices’ is the really simple bit: remove the speculative land element via annual land value tax (resource rent). This is basic market correction via the tax system (or repricing, as Richard prefers).
Sebastian
We need separation and a range of banks and mutuals even then, I suggest
Plus credit unions….
We have to claim money as our tool, not our master
Richard