China’s Predatory Lending
February 12, 2025
Fixed income securities used to be a relatively obscure part of the financial markets. Up until the late 1970s, bond markets were used by wealthy individuals, corporations, and even governments to park large sums of money in low-risk-low return securities. Since these bonds were mostly issued by sovereign authorities, they were considered to be one […]
Our monetary system has undergone a sea of change in the past century. If our great grandfathers were to see our lives today, they would not be able to relate to any form of payment. Fiat currency, plastic money, negotiable instruments are all creations of the financial innovation that has taken the world by storm […]
In the previous articles, we have already learned about the seed funding stage as well as the series A funding stage. We know that entrepreneurs raise seed funding in order to be able to build the prototype of the product. After the prototype is in place, they raise Series A funding to build the actual […]
The profession of investment banking has evolved over the years. Earlier, they were only used when companies wanted to issue securities and raise capital. Over the years, companies have realized that investment bankers know how to make securities more palatable to the investor community. Hence, they also know how to run the process in reverse, […]
In the previous article, we have already studied what risk-based supervision is. We now know why regulatory bodies all across the world are adopting the risk-based supervision system and what its benefits are. However, it is also important to understand the manner in which a risk-based supervision system can be implemented. The details of the […]
The European banking system has been in a bit of a crisis in the last few years. Major European banks have not recovered from the low valuations that they received during the 2008-09 banking crisis in the United States.
American banks seem to have recovered from the shock and are close to their previous valuations. However, the valuations of European banks have been down by as much as 70%. Major German banks such as Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank are the ones that have been hit the worst.
At the present moment, the market capitalization of Deutsche Bank is a mere 15% of what it was during its peak. The case with Commerzbank is also the same. Deutsche Bank is a German institution which is considered to be systemically important by many. Its existence goes to about 150 years in the past, and the bank has never faced an existential crisis like it is facing now.
The problem with European banks is that they have very large balance sheets and exposure to a lot of risky assets. European banks in total hold about 31 trillion euros in debt. This sum is close to three times the GDP of Europe. The problem is that it is a known fact that these banks are carrying over 900 billion in bad loans on their books. This amount is greater than 30% of the market capitalization of these banks.
This is also the case with Deutsche Bank. This balance sheet of Deutsche bank accounts for more than 45% of the German GDP. This is a dangerous situation to be in from a risk mitigation point of view. Since Deutsche bank is so large in size, the government will not have an option but to bail out the bank. If Deutsche Bank is in crisis, it means the entire German economy is in crisis.
European banks have been performing very poorly in general. Deutsche Bank is a perfect case in point for the malaise that has spread through the system.
American regulators have stipulated a 5% leverage ratio, which is much higher than the Basel norms. It is high time that the German regulators prevented a systemically important institution from making leveraged bets.
Angela Merkel has personally criticized other European leaders for using taxpayer money to bailout private banks. Now, it seems like Angela Merkel will have no option but to bail out the failing Deutsche bank. However, both Merkel and the German parliament will try to avoid such a bailout as long as they can. This is because such a bailout is against the German principles
The root cause of the entire situation is the lack of action taken by the European regulators. American banks were facing the same problems. However, after the 2008 crisis, the American regulators forced banks to raise more equity by raising the capital requirements. On the other hand, the European regulator listened to the bankers and eased the capital requirement norms. The end result of the situation is clearly visible. American banks are now on a sound footing whereas German behemoths like Deutsche bank face a risk of total collapse.
The bottom line is that bailouts do NOT make an economic system stable. Instead, it is a reasonably high capital requirement which leads to long-term stability of financial institutions like Deutsche Bank.
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