RSS feedvolcker rule
’Volcker turns the screw on Goldman
One of the more beguiling aspects of the detail-lite Volcker rule, as unveiled by President Obama late last month, was the notion that Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley could side-step all of the more draconian aspects of this regulatory clampdown by simply tearing up their puny deposit-taking licenses.
Volcker rule hits JPM’s Sempra deal
Ah, the Volcker rule: a godsend for non-bank associated market makers and trading houses — including the big physical commodity trading business — but not so good for trading divisions found within commercial banks.
European banks need €83bn
Yep. Another day and (yet) another note on the impact of the Basel proposals.
And this one is pretty frightening.
Morgan Stanley’s Huw van Steenis reckons Europe’s big banks will need to find €83bn by 2012,
Prop(er) pictorial irony at Barclays
More proprietary trading pictorial irony here and here.
Related link:
Barclays plays down impact of Obama proposals – WSJ
Financial reform checklist
Here’s a useful thing from Barclays Capital banking analysts Jonathan Glionna and Miguel Crivelli.
It’s a checklist of the steps to various financial reforms; Financial reform being, for the moment,
Bonkers Bove, the blueprint
As an addendum to Monday’s political rant, Rochdale Securities banking analyst Dick Bove has made a flow chart.
It is, by his own admission, rather “poorly drawn,” but it looks like this:
Who’s afraid of the Volcker rule?
John Kemp, columnist at Reuters, admits there is no easy way of identifying how much money the major banks make from prop trading.
However, he points out there is a way to breakdown which banks depend most heavily on trading income rather than investment or commercial banking activities.
The Volcker effect on PE
As speculation over the impact of the Volcker vagaries on banks’ ownership of private equity assets continues, the Private Equity Council in New York has done a quick tally-up of banks’ direct investment in PE funds.
The market-maker problem
Reuters uber-columnist John Kemp has penned some thoughts about the ‘Volcker rule’, and according to him the biggest problem facing the implementation of the prop trading ban will be differentiating internal speculative business from market-making activity.
Think tank conceit
Earlier this week the Demos think tank published a hectoring report entitled Bailed-Out Megabanks Go Right On Gambling (But Now with Taxpayer Support).
So on Thursday Demos announced:
Obama Administration
Can Goldman really dodge the Volcker rule?
Dick Bove seemed to think so earlier, saying “buy” Goldman, just as the stock fell 5 per cent. But there’s been such confusion (and a lack of detail) on the Obama administration’s proposals that we should spare the Rochdale Securities’ man the chance to revise his views.
Whither Highbridge, GSAM…Citadel?
Off the bat, there are some obvious hedge fund losers – or at this stage, to be clear, potential losers – from the wide-ranging Obama/Volcker financial reform package unveiled on Thursday.
Highbridge Capital is,