Bundesbank president Axel Weber gave a speech on “The Reform of Financial Supervision and Regulation in Europe” today at the Institute for International and European Affairs. The Institute has provided the text of Weber’s speech and an audio podcast here.
Update: Thanks to Michael Hennigan for noting that the impressive Mr. Weber also gave a completely different speech to Financial Services Ireland on the same day, titled “Making the Financial System more Resilient – The Role of Capital Requirements.” Link here.
7 replies on “Axel Weber at IIEA”
Emm, his name is Axel.
Emm. Indeed, so it is. How embarrassing! Ok, I’ve fixed it. Something tells me I was a bit tired when I posted this.
Prof. Weber spoke at a Financial Services Ireland lunch (FSI mainly represents IFSC companies) on his preference for banks to increase capital over the Volcker Rule or the creation of a European Stabilisation Fund.
Making the Financial System more Resilient – The Role of Capital Requirements
I thought he did a fantastic job of skirting around what alot of people have pointed to as the root cause of the crisis – low interest rate policy causing asset bubbles in property markets. Of course, that would have been whose fault…?
I think there is a culture clash between european and anglo-saxon finance.
The Continentals seem to be quite blase about highly leveraged banks lending money, but keep a careful eye on LTV rates for borrowers.
Conversely inthe Anglo-Saxon countries, we wrooy a lot about leveraging, but less so about LTV rates.
This culture clash creates similar but distinct approaches to regulating finance which cloud the issue somewhat.
Video of Prof. Weber’s presentation is also now available on the IIEA website here: http://www.iiea.com/events/the-reform-of-financial-supervision-and-regulation-in-europe
@All
Herr Axel Weber is always very welcome here.
May I suggest a move to Kantian Pragmatism – where we obtain the best of both Berlin and Boston.