William Webster
Drains up
The financial crisis had many perpetrators but now this is about to change. In future there will be one that gets blamed. Since 2007 we...
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Barbican Consulting Limited
William Webster
Jul 13, 20121 min read
Banking Culture
Barclays £59.5m fine rests on two aspects of Libor “fixing”: Profit. As Trader B explains: “I really need a very very low 3m fixing on...
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William Webster
Jun 5, 20122 min read
Follow the money
The earlier reported loss of $2bn at JP Morgan has reignited the debate “What use VAR?” VAR you will recall is a statistical technique...
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William Webster
May 25, 20121 min read
Prepare for a long weekend
There are solutions for sovereign borrowers with excessive debt. More borrowing Repayment Paying back with money worth less (inflation)...
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William Webster
May 25, 20121 min read
Recovery & Resolution & Repression
Earlier I mentioned that bail-in may leave unsecured depositors exposed to a higher loss given default. But it doesn’t stop there. There...
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William Webster
Apr 17, 20121 min read
Recovery & Resolution & Insecurity
In a regime of “too big to fail” the taxpayer bailed out banks. Whilst expedient at the time this led to the perception that the larger a...
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William Webster
Mar 20, 20122 min read
Does UK AAA matter?
There’s a lot of talk that the UK may lose its AAA debt rating. When this happened in the US government bond yields fell. So does it...
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William Webster
Jan 19, 20121 min read
On pricing risk
In 2012 you will see more pressure being brought to bear on explaining how you measure and price the risk in treasury and how...
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William Webster
Oct 22, 20112 min read
Regulation, the truth is out. We don’t know what we are doing. But does it matter?
Something to consider - is the FSA and the Bank of England run by a bright and talented group of people who have amazing foresight? Or...
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William Webster
Oct 18, 20112 min read
"Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber, and as deadly as a hit man”. But it works
You don’t have to be Greek to understand that something very wrong has happened. Public and private sector over leverage has led to the...
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William Webster
Aug 31, 20111 min read
Liquidity stress testing
Yesterday I was taking part in a webinar on liquidity stress testing. I had a check list of nine points they are here: 1. Severe yet...
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William Webster
Jun 15, 20112 min read
Wholesale deposits
Here's a dilemma for a small bank. You have £20m of "spare" liquidity. What do you do with it? a. Deposit it all with Barclays? b....
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William Webster
Jun 6, 20111 min read
Forward looking risk
The regulator is encouraging firms to become more proactive at looking at forward looking risk. Is that a good thing? It is not a panacea...
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William Webster
May 31, 20111 min read
On the buffer
In PS 9/16 and BIPRU 12 the FSA defined what a firm could count towards its liquidity buffer. This was mainly high quality government...
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William Webster
May 9, 20112 min read
Risk limits
Over twenty years ago I recall having a discussion with fellow dealers about how big our risk limits should be. We concluded that it was...
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William Webster
Apr 11, 20112 min read
Covered bonds
I was recently asked about covered bonds. This was timely since the Treasury has just published a review of the UK's regulatory framework...
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William Webster
Mar 24, 20111 min read
Treasury course
If you have been working in or around treasury for the last two or three decades you will have seen some remarkable changes. One that is...
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William Webster
Mar 16, 20112 min read
Why are interest rates so low?
In the UK, Bank rate is 0.50% this is the lowest it has ever been since records began over 300 years ago. According to many economists...
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William Webster
Mar 9, 20112 min read
Regulatory volatility - what happens if the tide turns?
When I see board risk packs there is more on liquidity, market and credit risk than ever before. That's a good thing, it promotes...
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