Give the banks time instead of bailouts!

Sir in your editorial of March 29 “Not yet time for a bail-out of time” you mention that “Governments can also help by facilitating renegotiation of mortgages. The principal aim is to avoid unnecessary and costly foreclosures.” That is nonsense! The principal and perhaps only aim of any renegotiation is to make the credit viable, ideally taking it out from the shadows of the subprime world and bringing it in to the prime world, where all debtor and creditors can enjoy lower interest rate return requirements.

Now also and though I fully agree that it is not time for a bail-out of banks, it is definitely time to give them some more time to react. This whole affair of putting the banks against the walls just because of the change of mind of credit rating agencies is too harmful. At least give them a year to find and make the new capital increases by allowing them to use a 12 months moving average to account for market changes in the value of their investments. And this way tax-payer does not have to step up to the plate as fast either, or even at all.