Banks with better capital will not stifle investment and growth. Bank capital requirements that are not neutral to perceived-risks will
Sir, I refer to David Miles, Professor of Financial Economics, Imperial College letter in which he argues that “Better capitalized banks will not stifle investment and growth” November 30.
He is of course right, but with some caveats.
First, it has to be reasonably well capitalized banks since, going overboard on capital requirements, might reduce the margins arising from leveraging and make getting that additional capital (equity) needed quite difficult.
Second, it is a delicate matter of how going from here to there. If you impose some drastic immediate adjustments then you must be prepared to go for instance the Chilean way, where its central bank made some important capital contributions but allowed former shareholders to repay them and buy them out when they could.
But, but, but! If you insist in that capital being risk weighted, it will just not work.
Suppose you want a 100% capitalized bank, but when calculating that 100% you keep on risk weighting the sovereign with 0%. That would mean that a bank would come up with 100% of equity if lending to a 100% risk weighted entrepreneur, but would be allowed to hold zero capital (equity) when lending to the sovereign. Would that just not be 100% top down Stalinism? How much non-governmental jobs could be created that way?
So, if we are to have economic growth, and banking sector stability, much more important than how well capitalized is that they are perceived-risk neutral capitalized.
Sir, you know how much I have been criticizing current bank regulations, but my first Op-Ed ever, in 1997, was titled “Puritanism in Banking”, and I still think that what we least need is too much of that. God make us daring!
And, since I will try to copy this letter to Professor Miles, I will hereby take this opportunity to ask him whether he has any idea of why regulators want banks to hold the most capital for when something perceived risky turns out risky? Is it not when something perceived ex ante as very safe turns ex post out to be very risky, that one would like banks to have the most of it?
@PerKurowski
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