Reuters (February 28)
China’s housing market seems to be approaching a paradigm shift. “The broad idea is to create a two-tier system. Local governments will rent out or sell flats below market prices to most residents, including some 300 million Chinese migrant workers who live far away from their hometowns in the mainland. Upgraders and investors could settle for a smaller private residential market, where regulators meddle less.”
Tags: China, Flats, Housing market, Investors, Local governments, Market prices, Migrant workers, Paradigm shift, Regulators, Rent, Residential, Residents, Sell, Two-tier system
Reuters (December 29)
“Big bank mergers are no longer taboo. Ever since the 2008 crisis bosses have considered consolidation between large lenders unworkable, while regulators deemed it undesirable. UBS (UBSG.S) Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti may change that if he safely and profitably absorbs local rival Credit Suisse.”
Tags: 2008 crisis, Big bank, Consolidation, Credit Suisse, Ermotti, Lenders, Mergers, Profitably, Regulators, Taboo, UBS, Undesirable, Unworkable
Wall Street Journal (December 28)
“The failure to anticipate how quickly the Fed would raise interest rates has upended banks big and small this year. Three bigger ones collapsed this spring, but it is community banks… that have been in a full-blown crisis. The losses on long-term bonds have unnerved depositors, investors and regulators who have questioned how bankers failed to properly protect themselves from interest-rate risks.”
Tags: Anticipate, Banks, Bonds, Collapsed, Community banks, Crisis, Depositors, Failure, Fed, Interest rates, Investors, Protect, Regulators, Risks, Unnerved, Upended
Economic Times (March 28)
Regulators suspect a single “trade on Deutsche Bank AG’s credit default swaps… fuelled a global selloff on Friday.” The roughly £5 million bet was for swaps on the bank’s junior debt. Likely due to market illiquidity, along with market jitters, the “knock-on effect was a rout that sent banking stocks tumbling, government bonds higher and CDS prices for lenders soaring.”
Tags: Bonds, CDS, Deutsche Bank, Global selloff, Illiquidity, Jitters, Junior debt, Market, Regulators, Rout, Suspect, Trade, Tumbling
American Banker (March 27)
“Silicon Valley Bank was not the only institution that loaded up on bonds at precisely the wrong time. Based analyzing the regulatory filings of over 4,700 U.S. banks, “dozens of other banks — most of them quite small — are deeply underwater on their bond investments and could hit trouble if they were unexpectedly forced to liquidate the investments.” Still, “many experts say there is very little risk that those unrealized losses could ever turn into a problem, given the many options available to banks and regulators’ focus on avoiding that type of scenario.”
Tags: Banks, Bonds, Experts, Forced, Investments, Liquidate, Regulators, Regulatory filings, Risk, SVB, U.S., Underwater, Unrealized losses, Wrong time
Wall Street Journal (March 13)
“For the second time in 15 years (excluding the brief Covid-caused panic), regulators will have encouraged a credit mania, and then failed to foresee the financial panic when the easy money stopped.” Other banks may be exposed to the duration risk that brought down Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), “as last week’s selloff in regional bank stocks shows…. Something like 85% to 90% of SVB’s deposits are uninsured. The worry is that depositors in other banks will now flee.”
Tags: 15 years, Banks, Covid, Credit mania, Deposits, Duration risk, Easy money, Exposed, Financial panic, Regulators, Selloff, Silicon Valley Bank, Uninsured
Reuters (March 11)
“Nearly three years with no U.S. bank failures just came to an unseemly end.” The FDIC took Silicon Valley Bank into receivership “after a slide in deposits and a hasty capital raising failed to restore confidence. By acting quickly, regulators have stopped one crisis, but may have laid the groundwork for more.”
Tags: Bank, Capital raising, Confidence, Deposits, Failures, FDIC, Hasty, Receivership, Regulators, Silicon Valley Bank, Slide, U.S., Unseemly
South China Morning Post (February 17)
“China’s regulators have unblocked the path for companies to list overseas, reopening the avenue of fundraising after a 20-month obstruction to enable businesses to recapitalise for growth in the post-Covid period.” Applications must be vetted by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) while the issuer must adhere to rules established by industry regulators in “disclosures of customers’ data and anything that could be construed as state secret.”
Tags: China, CSRC, Customers’ data, Disclosures, Fundraising, Growth, Industry regulators, Issuer, Overseas, Post-Covid, Recapitalise, Regulators, Reopening, State secrets, Vetted
CNN Business (February 14)
The collapse of FTX last November “was a seismic event for the crypto industry” that some called crypto’s “Lehman moment.” We appear to be “entering the Dodd-Frank era of crypto,” as regulators now have “a clearer target and a wave of public outrage to bolster their cause.” Since FTX’s bankruptcy, “state and federal regulators have escalated both their rhetoric and their actions to keep the fast-growing digital asset industry in check — a shift that is, unsurprisingly, not going over great with crypto companies.”
Tags: Actions, Bankruptcy, Collapse, Dodd-Frank, FTX, Lehman, Public outrage, Regulators, Rhetoric, Seismic
South China Morning Post (September 13)
“Even as they struggle with one of the world’s worst Covid-19 outbreaks, nations across Southeast Asia are slowly realising that they can no longer afford the economy-crippling restrictions needed to squash it…. Regulators are pushing forward with plans to reopen, seeking to balance containing the virus with keeping people and money moving.”
Tags: Afford, Balance, COVID-19, Crippling, Economy, Outbreaks, Regulators, Reopen, Restrictions, Southeast Asia, Struggle, Virus
