ALM Europe: "Fear and laziness" caused crisis

Banks are making their situations worse by refusing to do the due diligence required to lend in the interbank market, Dutch central banker Maarten Gelderman told the Risk ALM Europe conference in London today.

"One aspect of this is what I call the lazy bankers crisis," Gelderman said. "Banks are no longer willing to do the due diligence required to lend in the interbank market and instead they are losing huge amounts by keeping their money in low-interest accounts with the central bank."

The head of asset and liability management at HVB, Hans Sattler, called the move "the biggest surprise of the crisis - really astonishing".

The criticism was supported by another day of straitened lending in the