Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The Basel Committee watchdog, is now to probe how banks measure assets? You´ve got to be kidding!

The following is from a statement of Stefan Walter, secretary general of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, on September 20 

"If risk-weighted assets are not calculated in the correct way then the integrity of the (capital rules) is compromised" …. “The Basel Committee of international banking regulators is to launch a study into how banks measure assets for meeting capital safety rules… will focus on how banks determine risk-weighted assets under existing rules, not on whether the regime itself should change.” 

It looks like the Basel Committee is beginning to understand the horrible dimension of its mistakes, but, what an amazing lack of fortitude! …now it wants to blame the banks… without referencing its own madness when determining the risk-weights of Basel II and how these are used. 

Basel Committee Members, You tell us! You who determined that capital requirements for banks when lending to a triple-A rated sovereign should be zero, and to sovereigns like Greece only 1.6 percent; you who assigned a risk-weight of only 20 percent for anything private sector related to a triple-A rating and therefore allowed the banks to have only 1.6 percent in capital and leverage up 62.5 to 1 when investing in securities collateralized with lousy awarded mortgages to the subprime sector …. How do you think banks should determine risk-weighted assets under existing rules? 

You should not need a study for that… just ask yourselves! For heaven´s sake, you ARE the regulators!