The “too-big-too-fail” bank facilitators... or even promoters

The Basel Committee, with its Risk-weighting of Assets and Tier Capital mumbo jumbo, introduced horrendous confusion in the market.

One way to get a clearer picture of what banks are really up to, at least with respect to leverages, is to use that old trustworthy debt to equity ratio.

Using it on one of the European big bank´s balance sheets as of December 2012, I found that its Liabilities amounted to 1.96 T, I guess in Euros, and its Equity to 54.41bn. Well that would indicate a 36.02 Debt Equity Ratio.

Let me be clear… any bank regulator willing to allow for a higher than 12 to 1 Debt to Equity Ratio is most definitely a “too big to fail” bank facilitator, or even a promoter.