Is Basel Faulty?
The recent pronouncements from Basel III are the latest regulatory attempt to play the role of Atlas beneath the world economy. Certainly, increases in primary capital ratios, specifically common stock paying no dividends, provide an increase in the margin for error. However, a ten year period to actually achieve those ratios eliminates the hope these regulations will mitigate systemic risk for the next decade. The regulations will also have the effect of reducing the amount of credit available to the world economy, and therefore to the financing of leveraged buyout transactions. More central to the question of regulation is not ratio management, but the taking of risk by the banks. Critical problems at the banks were inventory levels of and exposure to securitization products, proprietary trading operations and the banks’ counterparty risks.
