Volume

97

Issue

11

Abstract

The last few months have seen a dramatic fall in the value of bank stocks both in Europe and the U.S., bringing back unpleasant memories of the depths of the financial crisis in 2008. Concerns about the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, continuing litigation relating to the American subprime mortgage crisis, and the generally poor state of the world economy have increasingly put banks under pressure. However, some commentators have pointed out the “silver lining” in all of this: the big American and European banks are better capitalized than they were during the financial crisis, and therefore are better able to absorb these shocks and less likely to fail. 1 Part of the reason that banks have increased their capital cushions is in anticipation of the new regulatory capital requirements that are being phased in by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (the “BCBS”) as part of Basel III.

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