Bringing the Love Back to the Banks, Step by Step

Mazars Global Head of Bank Regulation and Restructuring, Jonathan McMahon, discusses:

- Irish fiscal crisis - why banks were not allowed to fail;
- The need for institutional and policy mechanisms to lean against asset price bubbles;
- Proof of failure: stimulus-fed sugar rush of 2008-2009 - massive asset bubbles in Asia - all five of Australia’s cities now the most expensive property markets in the world;
- Stimulus money - not reaching the US consumer or enterprise in a significant way;
- The repeal of Glass-Steagal - whether right and appropriate to separate trading and retail banking;
- Top five challenges banks face - attendant and commensurate rise in costs for consumers - whether fair and just;
More stringent capital and funding requirements
Weakening credit quality
Obstacles to re-pricing credit
Consumer protection requirements
Operational and structural changes
- (Why not merely rein bankers in, impose strict regulatory conditions);
- Whether danger of over-regulating however;
- Despite all these developments and the financial crises in recent memory - scandals are coming hard and fast:
Stan Chart Iran accounts scandal - JP Morgan - quarterly and trading losses - Barclays Libor fiasco;
- How the Asian financial system differs from that of the West -  ability to learn from the lessons of the West;
- Issues of whether credit growth can be a social good - versus potential for destabilising asset bubbles -
- Silver Bird issue and broader issue of auditor liability.