Capital buffer
Crisis exposes flaws in US financial stability regime
Former Fed chair Yellen calls for reform after failure to curb corporate leverage ahead of Covid-19
ECB’s Enria unsure banks will dip into capital buffers
Anxiety over investor and rating agency reaction may limit banks’ use of Covid relief measures
Blurred lines in bank capital standards
Boundaries between capital buffers and capital requirements are looking worryingly unclear
Amid Covid crisis, top US banks give $32bn away to shareholders
Buybacks exceeded Q1 2019 total, despite voluntary suspension on March 15
UK banks’ RWAs plummeted in Q4 2019
Risk drop-off helped raise aggregate CET1 ratio
Capital responses, CCP losses and buffer worries
The week on Risk.net, March 14–20, 2020
Countercyclical buffer releases may free €6bn at top EU banks
Banco Santander and BNP Paribas could free €1.1 billion each
Six countries slash countercyclical buffers
Sweden reduces its buffer the most, to zero from 2.5%
Systemic banks could free $156bn of capital after Fed plea
Banks asked to use management buffers to support economy in combating coronavirus
US banks’ systemic footprints grew in 2019
Balance sheet growth lifts systemic risk scores
ECB cuts top banks’ required capital by over €350bn
Capital conservation requirement and Pillar 2 guidance amounts relaxed, countercyclical capital buffers encouraged to fall
Countercyclical buffer relief to save top UK banks £7bn in capital
BoE expects £190 billion of lending to be supported by CCyB cut
Capital buffers edge lower at systemic US banks in 2019
CET1 excess above institution-specific amounts slid 228bp at median G-Sib
Fed could postpone stress buffer beyond CCAR – experts
Delays prompt speculation that new rules will only be known after stress-test results in June
Barclays to shrink capital buffer
Bank targets excess capital over regulatory minimum of 100 basis points by year-end
UniCredit to liberate capital on Pillar 2 change
Bank targets 50% payout ratio
Risk capital reserve and measurement precision in modeling heavy-tailed single operational losses
This paper provides a rationale for adopting quantitative buffer capital, designed to absorb variations due to measurement errors, especially those originating from the estimation risk.
How US G-Sibs shrink down at year-end
Derivatives exposure reductions make up bulk of year-end savings
Fifth Chinese bank nears G-Sib designation
Build-up of trading assets and hard-to-value instruments contributed to Bank of Communication’s G-Sib score increase
Threats posed by systemic banks vary by region
Eurozone and UK G-Sibs are too big to fail because of their cross-border activities, Chinese G-Sibs because of their size
Substitutability cap spares JP Morgan higher Basel G-Sib score
JP Morgan could be in higher G-Sib bucket with cap removed
Top banks’ trading books dwindled in 2018
Trading and available-for-sale assets dropped €160 billion year-on-year
Now less of a systemic risk, Deutsche wins capital relief
Prospective leverage ratio should fall to 3.75% after risk-cutting efforts
TD Bank added to too-big-to-fail list
The bank’s total exposures climbed 2.4% to €931 billion year-on-year