One might need rats to smell out the rat in bank regulations.

Sir, Tim Harford refers to a paper published by Ben Vermaercke of the University of Leuven and four colleagues titled “More complex brains are not always better”, which “showed that rats were better than humans at distinguishing certain kinds of striped patterns from others”, “Trading places – with a rat” November 1.

So would Vermaercke and colleagues think that rats could be better than bankers at clearing that Basel Committee fog made up by credit-risk-weighted equity requirements for banks and which makes it so hard to navigate the financial valleys? 

If they were to ask trader-rats trainer Michael Marcovici, he might say no. That because his training method requires financial data to be converted into piano music, and the distortions of such bank regulations might cause just a bit too much dissonance.

But, then again, who knows, perhaps one might need rats to smell out the rat in bank regulations.