Banks, except for limited liquidity purposes, should not be dabbling in sovereign bonds

Sir, Reza Moghadam vice-chairman for sovereigns and official institutions at Morgan Stanley, in order to “provide more stimulus to slower-growing economies” proposes that “ECB should lengthen the maturity profile of the bonds it holds of slower-growing economies [as] Other things being equal, a flatter yield curve is more stimulative, as it encourages investment, and, by raising the price of long-dated bonds, strengthens the capital position of banks that hold them.” “A new twist in the ECB’s reinvestment policy”, September 13.

That reads as Moghadam hopes that ECB, indirectly, in a veiled way, helps to capitalize banks (and his department shine). It should not do so.

In my mind, if we want the real economy to stand a chance of sturdy and sustainable growth, banks should instead, little by little, be made to reduce the financing of public debt, most specially of its own sovereign, that to which they have been guided by very statist very low capital requirements. 

As fast as possible, banks should be allowed to hold the same capital when lending to entrepreneurs and small and medium businesses, as they are required to hold against sovereigns, residential mortgages and AAA rated securities. Only that way do the banks stand a chance to allocate credit efficiently to the real economy. 

In 2004, coming from a developing country, in a letter published by FT I asked: “How many Basel propositions will take before regulators start realizing the damage they are doing by favoring so much bank lending to the public sector. In some developing countries, access to credit for the private sector is all but gone, and the banks are up to the hilt in public credits.” That clearly applies now also to developed nations.

PS. Sovereign bonds, if so safe, at interest rates not subsidized by regulations, should primarily be available for pension funds and insurance companies.

@PerKurowski

Monsieur Macron, more than a finance minister/ministry, Europe needs bank regulators who know what they’re doing.

Sir, Reza Moghadam lays out a proposal for a European finance minister/ministry that, though it “stops short of Mr Macron’s vision of fiscal union, with Europe-wide taxes and spending… focuses on the essential: a collective action mechanism for managing and stabilising economies in crisis.” “Macron is right — the Eurozone needs a finance minister” September 29.

Moghadam suggests the job description for that post should answer some key questions, and among these: “How can the risk of crises, and so fiscal payouts, be minimised? What would be the role of the minister in a crisis?”

The prime answer to the first question should be:

Getting rid of current risk weighted capital requirements for banks. These only guarantee that banks will hold the least capital, when a crisis, as usual, arises because of something that was ex-ante perceived as very safe turns out ex-post to be very risky.

The prime answer to the second question should be:

Make sure any stimulus, like QEs or low interest rates, flows freely so that the market has a chance to use it as efficiently as possible. This also requires getting rid of current risk weighted capital requirements for banks. These, by allowing banks to earn higher risk adjusted returns on equity on what is perceived safe than on what is perceived risky, seriously distorts the allocation of bank credit to the real economy.

Sir, in other words, much of what Europe could need from a finance minister, could be achieved by just firing the current inept bunch of bank regulators.

Basel II’s standardized risk weights of 150% for the below BB- rated and of 20% for the AAA rated, should be more than enough evidence on how little current regulators understand of banks and of finance.

Monsieur Macron, do you know bank regulators have decreed inégalité?

PS. Perhaps Monsieur Macron could ask his wife what has a better chance of causing those big bank exposures that can result in a major bank crisis, the ultra-safe AAAs, or the ultra-risky below BB-? I am sure Mme Macron would give him a more correct answer than what Mario Draghi would do; and this even though Draghi was the previous chairman of the Financial Stability Board and is now the chairman of the Group of Governors and Heads of Supervision the oversight body of the Basel Committee of Banking Supervision.

Perhaps Monsieur Macron should also ask Mme Macron what she thinks of 0% risk weights of sovereigns. Does she really think government bureaucrats know better than the private sector how to use bank credit efficiently? Reza Moghadam, who was previously at the IMF, has not expressed any sort of concern with that… but then again he is now the vice-chairman for sovereigns and official institutions at Morgan Stanley.

@PerKurowski

Europe, if you do not remove current risk weighted capital requirements for banks, no stimulus will really help.

Sir, Reza Moghadam from Morgan Stanley writes: ECB should switch from buying sovereign bonds to funding the removal of troubled assets from European banks…[that] would do more to alleviate the constraints on economic recovery than sovereign bond purchases ever could. “How to redirect easy money and encourage banks to lend”, December 6.

Of course that would help, but only for a while. If you do not remove the risk weighted capital requirements for banks, those which distort the allocation of bank credit to the real economy, and which therefore impede any stimulus like QE or a European type Tarp to reach were it can do the most good, you’ll soon be back on the cliff, albeit higher up.

Sir, the lower the capital requirement, the higher the leverage of equity, the higher the expected risk adjusted return on bank equity be. Therefore you cannot be so naïve as to expect a banker like Moghadam to say one world that would imply higher capital requirements for anything. In fact, by allowing banks to earn the highest risk adjusted returns on what is perceived as safe, the Basel Committee has made the bankers’ wet dreams come true.

When will you invite someone, like me, who speaks out for the access to bank credit of the “risky” SMEs and entrepreneurs? Or are these beggars for opportunities, those who could help open new gateways to the future, just not glamorous enough for you?

@PerKurowski

The problem with banks holding too much sovereign debt is that no one dares tackle the regulatory favoritism of it.

Sir, I refer to Reza Moghadam’s “A modest proposal on QE”, June 12

The problem: “With banks… is that their balance sheets are stuffed with government paper… banks’ sovereign holdings remain sharply skewed to their own sovereign.”

Moghadam’s proposal: “the ECB could buy the excess bonds as part of a new QE programme. It would do so not based on a country’s capital share at the ECB, as is now the practice, but according to the excess exposure in each country’s bonds”

His expected result: “By delinking national banking systems from their own sovereigns, banks would end up holding a more diversified portfolio of sovereign debt.”

Sir, bank balances are stuffed with government paper not because of QEs, but mostly because ever since Basel I in 1988, that is what requires the least capital from banks scarce of regulatory-capital. And what use is it really for the real economies of Europe that their banks end up holding a more diversified portfolio of sovereign debt? Absolutely none!

In November 2004 in a letter published by FT I wrote: How many Basel propositions it will take before they start realizing the damage they are doing by favoring so much bank lending to the public sector? In some developing countries, access to credit for the private sector is all but gone, and the banks are up to the hilt in public credits.”

It is a problem that regulators do not dare tackle, mostly because its recognition points to the fact that the bank regulators were never really qualified to regulate.

Here is an aide memoire on the horrors of risk weighted capital requirements.

@PerKurowski ©

Restructure all Greece’s debt, in terms Germany would offer if it wanted to restructure its own public debt

Sir, I refer to Reza Moghadam’s “Halve the debt and keep the eurozone together” January 27.

I am convinced that much of the excessiveness of Greece’s public debt was a direct result of stupid European bank regulations. These allowed banks to hold minimum or no equity at all against loans to Greece, as if Greece was just as safe as for instance Germany; all which caused too tempting risk-adjusted returns on bank equity when lending to Greece. 

In that respect, if I were negotiating on behalf of Greece, I would start out by requesting that Greece’s debt should be restructured in terms that are compatible with having been set up as an “absolutely safe”. In other words, all Greece’s debt, in terms Germany would offer if it wanted to restructure its own public debt. Then if a haircut is still needed, it would be much smaller.

Europe’s guardians of monetary orthodoxy should fear the printing press, while bank regulatory lunacy persists.

Sir, Reza Moghadam holds that “Europe’s guardians of monetary orthodoxy need not fear the printing press.” December 11.

Moghadam argues that the opposition to printing money” based on the lack of structural reforms is wrong, since “output did not contract at the start of the crisis because of labor and product market regulations – those have been around for decades”. In this he clearly makes a valid point.

But, when even after stating “most European companies rely on banks rather than bond markets for their capital needs”; and that “interest rates for private sector loans have not fallen as much [as yields on sovereigns]; adjusting for lower inflation they have in fact risen” Moghadam goes into a convoluted explanation of how companies, because of higher equity prices, can still benefit from a QE in which ECB buys government bonds… then he clearly shows he has not understood one iota about how current credit risk-weighted capital (equity) requirements for banks distorts the allocation of bank credit to the real economy.

Europe should always be wary of the money “printing press” but, if the printing takes place while the allocation of the resulting liquidity is distorted, then it needs to be truly scared.