The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report
Author: Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission
Publisher: Cosimo, Inc.
Total Pages: 692
Release: 2011-05-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1616405414

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, published by the U.S. Government and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in early 2011, is the official government report on the United States financial collapse and the review of major financial institutions that bankrupted and failed, or would have without help from the government. The commission and the report were implemented after Congress passed an act in 2009 to review and prevent fraudulent activity. The report details, among other things, the periods before, during, and after the crisis, what led up to it, and analyses of subprime mortgage lending, credit expansion and banking policies, the collapse of companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the federal bailouts of Lehman and AIG. It also discusses the aftermath of the fallout and our current state. This report should be of interest to anyone concerned about the financial situation in the U.S. and around the world.THE FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION is an independent, bi-partisan, government-appointed panel of 10 people that was created to "examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States." It was established as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009. The commission consisted of private citizens with expertise in economics and finance, banking, housing, market regulation, and consumer protection. They examined and reported on "the collapse of major financial institutions that failed or would have failed if not for exceptional assistance from the government."News Dissector DANNY SCHECHTER is a journalist, blogger and filmmaker. He has been reporting on economic crises since the 1980's when he was with ABC News. His film In Debt We Trust warned of the economic meltdown in 2006. He has since written three books on the subject including Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books, 2008), and The Crime Of Our Time: Why Wall Street Is Not Too Big to Jail (Disinfo Books, 2011), a companion to his latest film Plunder The Crime Of Our Time. He can be reached online at www.newsdissector.com.

Economic Consequences of the Vickers Commission

Economic Consequences of the Vickers Commission
Author: Laurence J. Kotlikoff
Publisher: Civitas Book Publisher
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Banks and banking
ISBN: 9781906837426

Argues that the Vickers Commission's banking reforms will not protect Britain from another financial crisis and proposes Limited Purpose Banking as an effective alternative approach to regulating the financial system.

Creating a Safer Financial System

Creating a Safer Financial System
Author: José Vinãls
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 27
Release: 2013-05-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1484340949

The U.S., the U.K., and more recently, the E.U., have proposed policy measures directly targeting complexity and business structures of banks. Unlike other, price-based reforms (e.g., Basel 3 and G-SIFI surcharges), these proposals have been developed unilaterally with material differences in scope, design and implementation schedules. This may exacerbate cross-border regulatory arbitrage and put a further burden on consolidated supervision and cross-border resolution. This paper provides an analysis of the potential implications of implementing different structural policy measures. It proposes a pragmatic and coordinated approach to development of these policies to reduce risk of regulatory arbitrage and minimize unintended consequences. In doing so, it also aims to identify a set of common policy measures that countries could adopt to re-scope bank business models and corporate structures.

The Government response to the Independent Commission on Banking

The Government response to the Independent Commission on Banking
Author: Great Britain: H.M. Treasury
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Total Pages: 82
Release: 2011-12-19
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780101825221

In its final report the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) recommended a package of measures, consisting of ring-fencing vital banking services and increasing banks' loss-absorbency. The Government strongly supports the ICB's objectives and dual approach. The Government agrees that vital banking services - in particular, the taking of retail deposits - should only be provided by 'ring-fenced' banks', and that these banks should be prohibited from undertaking certain investment banking activities. On increased loss-absorbency, also supported are the ICB recommendations for higher equity requirements for large ring-fenced banks, a minimum leverage ratio, loss-absorbing debt, insured depositor preference and higher levels of loss-absorbing capacity for banks that are difficult to resolve. With regards to the principle that systemically important banks hold a minimum about of loss-absorbing capacity on a group-wide basis, however, the requirement should not apply to non-UK operations where it can be shown that those operations to do not pose a risk to UK financial stability. The Government also believes that depositor preference needs further analysis and consultation. On competition, the Government also strongly supports all the ICB recommendations. The Government estimates the aggregate private costs to UK banks at £3.5bn - £8bn, producing a gross reduction in GDP of £0.8bn - £1.8bn. Against these costs though should be set the potentially much larger benefits with the ICB's recommendations yielding an estimated incremental economic benefit of £9.5bn per annum. Significantly too the Government wants to see relevant legislation completed by the end of this Parliament in May 2015 as opposed to the ICBs recommended 2019

Independent Commission on Banking final report

Independent Commission on Banking final report
Author: Independent Commission on Banking
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2011-09-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780108510984

The Independent Commission on Banking's final recommendations aim to create a more stable and competitive basis for UK banking for the long term. The result would be a banking system that is much less likely to cause, or succumb to, financial crises and the huge costs they bring; is self-reliant, so that the taxpayer does not have to bear the losses that banks make; and is effective and efficient at providing the basic banking services of safeguarding retail deposits, operating secure payments systems, and efficiently channelling savings to productive investments in the economy. Stability is crucial and UK banks should have more equity capital and loss-absorbing debt - beyond what has so far been internationally agreed - and their retail banking activities should be structurally separated, by a ring-fence, from wholesale and investment banking activities. The Commission also address competition, which has not been properly effective in UK retail banking. They recommend a seamless switching system based on redirection for personal and small business current accounts, free of cost and risk, complemented by measures to enhance transparency. The new Financial Conduct Authority should have a clear duty to promote effective competition. Structural reform should be complete by the Basel implementation date of 2019 at the latest. These reforms would result in better-capitalised, less leveraged banking more focused on the needs of savers and borrowers in the domestic economy. At the same time UK banks would be free to flourish in global markets, but without UK taxpayer support.

Regulatory Cycles: Revisiting the Political Economy of Financial Crises

Regulatory Cycles: Revisiting the Political Economy of Financial Crises
Author: Jihad Dagher
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 89
Release: 2018-01-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1484337743

Financial crises are traditionally analyzed as purely economic phenomena. The political economy of financial booms and busts remains both under-emphasized and limited to isolated episodes. This paper examines the political economy of financial policy during ten of the most infamous financial booms and busts since the 18th century, and presents consistent evidence of pro-cyclical regulatory policies by governments. Financial booms, and risk-taking during these episodes, were often amplified by political regulatory stimuli, credit subsidies, and an increasing light-touch approach to financial supervision. The regulatory backlash that ensues from financial crises can only be understood in the context of the deep political ramifications of these crises. Post-crisis regulations do not always survive the following boom. The interplay between politics and financial policy over these cycles deserves further attention. History suggests that politics can be the undoing of macro-prudential regulations.

Banking and Trading

Banking and Trading
Author: Mr.Arnoud W.A. Boot
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 48
Release: 2012-10-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1475511213

We study the effects of a bank's engagement in trading. Traditional banking is relationship-based: not scalable, long-term oriented, with high implicit capital, and low risk (thanks to the law of large numbers). Trading is transactions-based: scalable, shortterm, capital constrained, and with the ability to generate risk from concentrated positions. When a bank engages in trading, it can use its ‘spare’ capital to profitablity expand the scale of trading. However, there are two inefficiencies. A bank may allocate too much capital to trading ex-post, compromising the incentives to build relationships ex-ante. And a bank may use trading for risk-shifting. Financial development augments the scalability of trading, which initially benefits conglomeration, but beyond some point inefficiencies dominate. The deepending of the financial markets in recent decades leads trading in banks to become increasingly risky, so that problems in managing and regulating trading in banks will persist for the foreseeable future. The analysis has implications for capital regulation, subsidiarization, and scope and scale restrictions in banking.

The Regulatory Responses to the Global Financial Crisis

The Regulatory Responses to the Global Financial Crisis
Author: Mr.Stijn Claessens
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 39
Release: 2014-03-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1484336658

We identify current challenges for creating stable, yet efficient financial systems using lessons from recent and past crises. Reforms need to start from three tenets: adopting a system-wide perspective explicitly aimed at addressing market failures; understanding and incorporating into regulations agents’ incentives so as to align them better with societies’ goals; and acknowledging that risks of crises will always remain, in part due to (unknown) unknowns – be they tipping points, fault lines, or spillovers. Corresponding to these three tenets, specific areas for further reforms are identified. Policy makers need to resist, however, fine-tuning regulations: a “do not harm” approach is often preferable. And as risks will remain, crisis management needs to be made an integral part of system design, not relegated to improvisation after the fact.

Estimating the Costs of Financial Regulation

Estimating the Costs of Financial Regulation
Author: Mr.Andre Santos
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 43
Release: 2012-09-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 147551008X

Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate. These papers are generally brief and written in nontechnical language, and so are aimed at a broad audience interested in economic policy issues. This Web-only series replaced Staff Position Notes in January 2011.

The Next Money Crash—and How to Avoid It

The Next Money Crash—and How to Avoid It
Author: Uli Kortsch
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2014-07-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1491739509

"Offering provocative and compelling solutions for remedying the country's banking system, [this] presents a transcription of the conference, "Fixing the Banking System for Good' organized by the Global Interdependence Center. This conference offered a variety of speakers presenting differing views of key issues, all with a common goal - to moderate the financial disruptions the current system allows; to provide a sound, stable currency; to compel, through market forces, more transparency in the activities of financial institutions; and to take taxpayers off the hook. In all of the plans, more capital and more transparency are key elements, along with the end to government guarantees, which provide advantages to large, opaque financial institutions. [It] compiles the latest thinking of many leading minds in finance and economics and provides a clear prescription for fixing the banking system as well as the global monetary system"--Publisher's description.