Posted on by John Sloman

A financial health check

Every six months the Bank of England publishes its Financial Stability Report. “It aims to identify the major downside risks to the UK financial system and thereby help financial firms, authorities and the wider public in managing and preparing for these risks.”

In the latest report, published on 17 December 2010, the Bank expresses concern about the UK’s exposure to problems overseas. The two most important problems are the continuing weaknesses of a number of banks and the difficulties of certain EU countries in repaying government bonds as they fall due and borrowing more capital at acceptable interest rates. As the report says:

Sovereign and banking system concerns have re-emerged in parts of Europe. The IMF and European authorities proposed a substantial package of support for Ireland. But market concerns spilled over to several other European countries. At the time of writing, contagion to the largest European banking systems has been limited. In this environment, it is important that resilience among UK banks has improved over the past year, including progress on refinancing debt and on raising capital buffers. But the United Kingdom is only partially insulated given the interconnectedness of European financial systems and the importance of their stability to global capital markets.

The Bank identifies a number of specific risks to the UK and global financial systems and examines various policy options for tackling them. The following articles consider the report.

Articles
Bank warns of eurozone risks to UK as EU leaders meet Independent, Sean O’Grady (17/12/10)
Deep potholes on the road to recovery Guardian, Nils Pratley (17/12/10)
It’s reassuring that regulators are still worried about financial stability The Telegraph, Tracy Corrigan (17/12/10)
Europe is still searching for stability and the UK must find it too Independent, Hamish McRae (17/12/10)
Shafts of light between the storm clouds The Economist blogs: ‘Blighty’ (17/12/10)

Report
Financial Stability Report, December 2010: Overview Bank of England
Financial Stability Report, December 2010: Links to rest of report Bank of England

Questions

  1. What are the most important financial risks facing (a) the UK; (b) eurozone countries?
  2. What is the significance of the rise in banks’ tier-1 capital ratios since 2007?
  3. Which is likely to be more serious over the coming months: banking weaknesses or sovereign debt? Explain.
  4. What is being done to reduce the risks of sovereign default?
  5. Why might the weaker EU countries struggle to achieve economic growth over the next two or three years?
  6. How do interest rates on government debt, as expressed by bond yields, compare with historical levels? What conclusions can you draw from this?
  7. What is likely to happen to bond yields in the USA, the UK and Germany over the coming months?
  8. What has been the effect of the extra £200 billion that the Bank of England injected into the banking system through its policy of quantitative easing?