I was delighted today that my ten-minute rule Bill was introduced without opposition. This late in the Parliament, the Bill itself is extremely unlikely to make further progress but I was glad to put the following on the record (these are my notes – Hansard is here: Mr Speaker, I beg to move that leave be given to bring in a Bill to enforce strict liability on directors of financial institutions; to require directors of financial institutions to post personal […]

Tags: Financial Crisis, Financial Institutions (Reform) Bill, Governance, Liability, Moral Hazard, Parliament, Risk

In previous articles, I set out why it’s necessary to address risk-taking incentives in banks and how losses would be covered from the bonus pool and director’s personal bonds before hitting equity. This article sets out other necessary provisions. 5. Accounting standards 5.1 For the purposes of the Bill, all relevant figures (measures of profit, loss, capital, bonuses, personal bonds posted, etc.) would be obtained using parallel prudent accounting rules i.e. UK GAAP under Companies Act legislation. This was proposed in […]

Tags: Financial Crisis, Financial Institutions (Reform) Bill, Governance, Liability, Moral Hazard, Parliament, Risk

Yesterday, I began to set out how my proposed Financial Institutions (Reform) Bill would meet the need for a vibrant, reliable and robust banking system by adjusting bank directors’ and employees’ exposure to commercial risk. That article described changes to bank directors’ liability and the treatment of bonuses. This article explains how losses would be made good and defines core capital. 3. Use of personal bonds and bonus pool to make good bank losses 3.1 Should a bank report losses […]

Tags: Financial Crisis, Financial Institutions (Reform) Bill, Governance, Liability, Moral Hazard, Parliament, Risk

A developed society like ours needs a good means of exchange, unit of account and store of value: a good money. It also needs a vibrant, dynamic, reliable and robust means of executing payments and intermediating savings to entrepreneurs: we need a good banking system. Unfortunately, Of all the many ways of organising banking, the worst is the one we have today. And I agree with the Governor of the Bank of England. He said elsewhere in that speech, “At the […]

Tags: Financial Crisis, Financial Institutions (Reform) Bill, Governance, Liability, Moral Hazard, Parliament, Risk