European Banking Federation Publishes Study on Reform of EU Banking Sector

Introduction

On 24 July 2012, the European Banking Federation (“EBF”) published a “Study on the issue of possible reforms to the structure of the EU Banking Sector”.  The report is related to the ongoing work of the High Level Expert Group established by the EU Commission to examine the same issue.

The report distinguishes regulatory reform (such as CRD IV, RRP, EMIR and MiFID) from structural reform – a reference to the Vickers report in the UK and the Volcker rule in the US.

Regulatory Reform

In general, the EBF is supportive of regulatory initiatives.  However, on the subject of RRP, it cautions that “a reasonable balance must be struck between effective, robust supervision and supervisory approaches which are overly intrusive into the normal, day-to-day running of a healthy business”.  The EBF also approves of the concept of “bail-in”, favouring a wide definition of bail-in-able debt so as to reduce the possibility of arbitrage and the need for a statutory minimum quantity of bail-in-able debt to be issued by firms.  However, the EBF believes that the “timing and the implementation of any bail-in mechanism…must…avoid imposing an excessive funding cost that could impair the provision of credit to the real economy and result in an excessive deleveraging”.

Structural Reform

The EBF believes that the objectives of the G20 and the EU are to:

• increase the stability of the European financial sector by reducing risk;
• ensure orderly resolution of financial institutions without taxpayer support; and
• maintain the integrity of the Internal Market and to ensure the ability of banks to serve the real economy.

It claims that all of these objectives can be achieved by the finalisation and implementation of the regulatory reform agenda without the necessity of structural reform.  Citing the ECB’s report on EU Banking Structures, the EBF claims that “there is no convincing evidence that structural reform has a direct influence on systemic risk and would make restructuring or resolution easier in the event of a crisis.”  Quite the opposite, it expresses the view that “the disadvantages deriving from a potential adoption of UK- or US- style structural reforms for the EU would be much larger than the eventual benefits that they would generate” due to the possibility that it will lead to fragmentation of financial markets in the EU and create incentives to circumvent the rules.  As such, it concludes that any structural change should be delayed until the regulatory reform agenda has been completed so that its impact can be properly assessed.

Conclusion

The views of the EBF regarding the definition of bail-in-able debt are interesting.  They accord with opinions expressed by the buyside, such as AIMA,  and are undoubtedly correct.  The more narrow the definition, the greater the risk that the protection afforded by bail-in debt will be rendered toothless at the structuring desks of investment banks around the globe.

The reluctance of the EBF to embrace structural change is understandable.  Whilst the political benefits are clear and opinion both amongst regulators and the industry seems to be swinging behind these initiatives (see, for example, here), the economic case for reforms such as those proposed by Vickers has yet to be made definitively.  Unfortunately for the banks, however, neither the UK nor the US governments seem to have a reverse gear where Vickers and Volcker are concerned.

If you have an hour to spare I would recommend that you read this study for no other reason than it provides an excellent review of the history and developments across the entire regulatory landscape within the EU.

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