Robert Jenkins, we can do with just good bankers, though we are in urgent need of more statesmanlike regulators.

Sir, Robert Jenkins, a senior fellow at Better Markets and former member of the Financial Policy Committee of the Bank of England writes about “The long wait for a statesmanlike banker” December 22.

And in it Jenkins refers to Deutsche Banks’ recently appointed chief executive Mr John Cryan, as “part of a new breed of competent, no-nonsense executives who understand how to run a business. They know that risk and reward must be linked; that senior staff must be held accountable, and that their institutions must have sufficient loss-absorbing capital to take the hits when things go wrong, as they inevitably will. Why not insist that their peers in the industry take the same approach and visibly support regulators in this quest?”

What? “Support the regulators in this quest”? It is precisely the current regulators who, with their capital requirements for banks based on perceived credit risk, have utterly distorted the links between risk and rewards.

We can do with just good bankers, but we sure need much more statesmanlike regulators who care much more about the purpose of our banks, than about the survival of our banks.

@PerKurowski ©