ECB Wants 8% Capital Buffer from Banks

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

ECB Inspections Start in November: The European Central Bank said Wednesday that it will begin a thorough review in November of the balance sheets of around 130 financial institutions from Latvia to Germany. Some news outlets are calling this a "bad loan" test. The goal is to remove doubts about the strength of European banks in the wake of the European recession. Along with stress tests, the central bank is also requiring all the banks it's assessing to set aside 8% of risk-adjusted capital as buffers against losses. The New York Times opines that the central bank, with its credibility at stake, must show that it can succeed in eliminating doubts about European banks where other national and European authorities have failed, and needs to make clear who will pay to recapitalize weak banks and how terminally ill banks will be shut down without unleashing market turmoil.

Wall Street Journal

Being "nice" wasn't enough for Co-op Bank in the U.K. The troubled lender prided itself on its investing principles, but made some missteps in the basics of running a bank and racked up a pile of bad loans.

Financial Times

Credit Suisse has fired a senior private banker in Singapore after authorities unveiled an alleged multi-million dollar scheme by the banker to defraud clients over several years.

New York Times

A judge has ordered Goldman Sachs to pay the legal fees of a former computer programmer accused of stealing code from the bank because the programmer, Sergey Aleynikov, was an officer of the bank during the time in question. The fees could add up to more than $4 million; this is part of a larger trend in which banks are responsible for the legal costs of former employees.