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Observing before acting has a veneer of sense about it. But we shouldn’t expect to learn anything much from the European Commission's observation period ahead of the introduction of the Liquidity Coverage Ratio. It's pointless.
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The faces may have changed but financial blunderers are still running the show in Dublin. The latest folly: selling one third of the best bit of their banking system for €1bn — after spending more than €60bn on the worst.
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By common consent, the best bit about the EBA stress tests was the level of disclosure they provided. Why has this been so hard to do? Even if Europe pulls back from the brink this week or this month, banks should start planning for a permanently tougher market.
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With a week to go until the European Commission unveils its interpretation of Basel III, there is still everything to play for. The ABS market needs to tear its eyes from the terror in the eurozone periphery and kick down a few doors in Brussels.
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The latest whinge about Europe's bank stress tests is ludicrous. The tests are short of the mark, not over it.
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Confusion over the out-of-kilter pricing on Banco Espirito Santo’s debt exchange offer highlights the crucial importance of communicating with the market — especially with the Irish precedent of painful burden-sharing so fresh.
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The news that almost a third of Bank of Moscow’s $30bn loan portfolio may include non-performing real estate loans is a reminder that — in emerging markets in particular — international lenders' credit processes must be strong enough to drill through what can be opaque financial reporting.
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The European Commission might be breathing a sigh of relief that its messy involvement with Germany's WestLB will soon come to an end. But it shouldn't think for a moment that it has achieved anything.
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Criticising Cocos means criticising the consensus that these securities will solve the capital problems of the big international banks. Plenty of people, from DCM bankers to treasurers to politicians, have vested interests in backing the new system. Mervyn King should be applauded for resisting the urge.
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While it is difficult to argue against the logic of senior creditor bail-ins, the practicalities are complicated. Bank of Ireland’s capital generation exercise, even though it is so far limited to tier two paper, has highlighted some of the pitfalls. Regulators ignore these worries at their peril.