Where has financial liberalization taking FT?

Sir your editorial on "Where the financial liberalisation got us" December 29 contains a doubtful statement, some declarations of faith and a big dose of understandable financial sector partisanship.

First can we really speak about liberalisation while a fundamental part of the financial system, namely risk evaluation, is chained by the regulators to the limited criteria of a few credit rating agencies? Before, in banking, there was more of a "you banks you do as you like but only indoors" while now it is more of a "you banks can go out but remember always to do as your nannies the credit rating agencies say" and we could spend years discussing which is the most liberal of those two systems.

Second, among the credos you recite is that of "but before the first Basel agreement on capital adequacy reserves often bore little relation to a bank's risk", and this is something that we all hope is true, but not necessarily so when we see so many banks scrambling around for more capital. Also when you say that "capital [has] been allocated more efficiently" we have to wonder on what basis you are sure of that since most of us would only be able to come up with a "and let us so pray".

Finally, on partisanship, your "Whereas 40 years ago many millions of young people may have wanted to borrow against their future income, in order to go to university…" contains a whereas that might be a little too sweet for our taste when we now read about so many students struggling to repay their loans.