Q. Watson, what about requiring banks to hold more capital against risky assets than against safe? A. Dumb!

Let me explain:

If banks must hold more capital against assets perceived ex ante as risky than against assets perceived as safe then: banks will earn higher risk adjusted returns on equity for assets perceived as safe than for assets perceived as risky; and that distorts the economic efficient allocation of bank credit to the real economy, which of course attempts against a vital purpose of banks.

More dumbness: Since major bank crisis always occur because something ex ante perceived as safe turns out ex post as very risky, this would guarantee that banks stand there with the pants down and little capital to cover themselves up, precisely when they most need it.

More dumbness: Bank capital is required in order to cover for unexpected risks so as to estimate these based on the expected losses from perceived credit risks is, to put it delicately, not smart at all.

More dumbness: To make it more difficult for The Risky, like SMEs and entrepreneurs to have fair access to bank credit, does certainly produce increased inequality

Do you want me to keep going on its dumbness?

What about this? The risk weight for those that being perceived as safe could pose so much danger for the banking system like the AAA rated, was set at 20% in Basel II. The risk weight for those totally innocuous below BB- rated, was set at 150%.

No Mr Watson, that should be more than enough. Thank you. I will immediately call the Basel Committee, the Financial Stability Board and the IMF, and suggest they consult you on this delicate matters, that in my opinion is taking our economies down.

Dumb bank regulators clearly evidence we need artificial intelligence, at least as a backup

Banks fail because: they cannot perceive the risks correctly, they cannot manage the correctly perceived risks correctly, or suddenly something truly bad an unexpected happens… like the economy falling to pieces.

So if banks should be required to hold equity, in order to build up a buffer before they need help from taxpayers, those equity requirements should be based on: the credit risks not being correctly perceived, the bankers not being able to manage perceived risks, and something truly not expected happening, like an asteroid hitting their borrowers.

But, the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision, based its equity requirements for banks on the ex ante credit risks being correctly perceived… and that is nothing but loony... seemingly they all missed the lecture on conditional probabilities.

Besides they regulate banks in thousand of pages, without defining what the purpose of banks is… and that is nothing but absolutely irresponsible.

Any artificial intelligence worthy of its name would have made two simple questions.

What is the purpose of banks?

What has caused major bank crisis?

And how different and better the world would then have been. We could surely have had other type of problems, but definitively not the current crisis, caused by excessive lending to what was ex ante perceived as safe; nor the current lousy economy, caused by the lack of lending to those perceived as “risky”, like the SMEs, precisely the tough we need to get going when the going gets tough.

Our grandchildren will damn current bank regulators, for not allowing banks to take the risks their future needs.

PS. Here is an updated list on the many mistakes with risk weighted capital requirements