Banks will need much thicker capital cushions
dd
For decades, holders of the liabilities of banks in the United States had felt secure with the protection of a modest equity-capital cushion, allowing banks to lend freely. As recently as the summer of 2006, with average book capital at 10%, a federal agency noted that "more than 99% of all insured institutions met or exceeded the requirements of the highest regulatory capital standards."
Related Links
finance
, banks
, americas
, financial crisis
, mortgage
, credit
Most Popular
Related Galleries (47)
-
Nationalisation stalk the banking system (8 photos)
How to explain another week of bail-outs, billion-dollar losses and... -
Banks will need much thicker capital cushions (10 photos)
For a year, banks struggled to respond to investor demands for larger... -
European taxpayers face a decade of bank exposure (10 photos)
European governments should brace themselves for being involved in... -
Doubts persist about Nigeria's banks (8 photos)
Are the banks as shiny as they look?