If only the Basel Committee of Banking Supervision ‘Swallowed the brave pill’

Sir, I refer to Emma Jacobs "‘Swallow the brave pill,’ advises the tech executive turned entrepreneur" July 23

Currently regulators, by means of lower capital requirements, give banks incentives to build up large exposures on what is perceived, decreed or concocted as safe, like house financing, sovereigns like Greece and AAA rated securities. That is like feeding our banks carbs only, something which makes our bank system obese.

As a result those perceived as risky, like SMEs and entrepreneurs, and who are so important for the future of the economy, are also kept on an anorexic credit diet. 

That is all because regulators, even if banks with size of exposure and risk premiums already clear credit risk, are, quite infantile I would say, more concerned with the risks perceived ex ante than with what could happen ex post. Had they not been so, they would have long time ago realized that what puts our bank system in danger of major crisis, is never what is perceived ex ante as risky, but always what has been wrongly perceived as safe.

Wouldn’t it be nice Thomas Davies helped those regulators to “swallow a brave pill” in order to get over their affliction that so much hurts us? Then our bank system would be safer and our economies stronger.

@PerKurowski

By giving weight to credit rating forecast that already had weight, bank regulators poisoned these Pringles.

Sir, I refer to Tim Harford’s “Why predictions are a lot like Pringles” January 9.

He argues than when we hear a forecast because “we imagine it happening… other scenarios, equally plausible, fade into the background” and also that “forecasts offer us a lazy way to understand a complex world… it will probably be wrong. But at the instant it is consumed, it gratifies… a lot like Pringles

And Pringles, although they can seriously dent your losing weight plans, basically just gives you “the fleeting pleasure of consuming them”, and that’s it.

But what if you bet on the predictions, like on credit ratings, if you then see an AAA and the rest of possibilities “fade into the background” and you use them as a “lazy way to understand a complex world” then those Pringles carry poison.

For instance bank regulators, with Basel II, set the risk weight of an AAA rated asset at 20 percent while the risk-weight of a below BB- rated asset was 150 percent… which (with a basic capital requirement of 8 percent) meant banks were allowed to leverage their equity over 60 times with AAA rated asset but only around 8 times with assets rated below BB-.

First there is no way below BB- rated risks are riskier to the stability of banks than what is AAA rated. But also since banks already considered the ratings when setting interest rates and size of exposures, the regulators de facto poisoned the AAA Pringles the ratings agencies offered, and the whole world suffered as a consequence.

PS. I now need to reference often Emma Jacobs’ “Teachers who make risk child’s play” January 8. In it Jacob’s describes how Daniel Kish, he himself blind, teaches blind children how to manage risks they cannot see. And I beg you to compare that, to bank regulators who, with credit risk weighted capital requirement for banks, try to help bankers to manage the risks they already see. What a crazy world!

PS. January 2003, in a letter published in FT I wrote: “Everyone knows that, sooner or later, the ratings issued by the credit agencies are just a new breed of systemic errors, about to be propagated at modern speeds. Friends, as it is, the world is tough enough.” Unfortunately the world wanted Pringles.

@PerKurowski ©

Out with Stefan Ingves, Mario Draghi, Mark Carney and other, and in with Daniel Kish, Conrad Allen and Lenore Skenazy

Sir, Emma Jacobs has penned one of the most important articles I have read over the last decades. I refer to “Teachers who make risk child’s play: Three people who coach children in how they can anticipate and manage hazards offer their insights on how to be bold” January 8.

In it she describes how Daniel Kish, president and founder of World Access for the Blind and chief perceptual-navigation instructor, he himself blind, teaches blind children how to manage risks they cannot see.

Compare that to silly bank regulators who, by means of their credit risk weighted capital requirement for banks, want to help bankers to manage the risks they already see.

And she refers to Conrad Allen, chief instructor of True-ways Survival, who objects to that kids “don’t go into the woods to play any more… largely because their parents are risk avoiders rather than risk mitigators”

And compare that to silly bank regulators who, by means of their credit risk weighted capital requirement for banks, give banks ice cream and chocolate cake, larger risk adjusted returns on equity, as long as they stay away from those dangerous forests where spinach an broccoli, SMEs and entrepreneurs, grow.

And she refers to Lenore Skenazy, a free-range parenting advocate who “has spoken at schools to encourage children to push back against their parents’ well-meaning coddling and take risks”

And compare that to the silly bank regulators who, by means of their credit risk weighted capital requirement for banks, insist with Basel III in that bankers should stick to refinancing the safer past and stay away from financing the riskier future.

As for me, I would, without a doubt, immediately throw out the current regulators in the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision, and gladly hand it over to Daniel Kish, Conrad Allen and Lenore Skenazy, so as to save the Western Civilization, that which became what it is thanks to risk-taking and not to risk aversion.

God make us daring!

@PerKurowski ©