Capital Briefs: Lax Controls Increase Risk, Greenspan Says

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Friday that weak supervision in many foreign countries is creating risks for international lending between banks.

"Interbank funding, especially cross-border, may turn out to be the Achilles' heel of an international financial system that is subject to wide variations in financial confidence," he told a conference on risk management in Miami that was sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Mr. Greenspan said the recent economic turmoil in Asia demonstrates that stronger capital and lending standards are needed.

"When banks are undercapitalized, have lax lending standards, and are subjected to weak supervision and regulation, they become a source of systemic risk, both domestically and internationally."

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