Capital adequacy
EU banks saw distressed loans heap up in Q4
‘Stage two’ assets make up 9.1% of banks’ total
Equity growth slowed at US banks in 2020
CET1 ratios of biggest US banks were largely flat on 2019
Dividend freeze helped keep lid on bank CDS spreads – BIS
But the ban on distributions wrecked bank share prices
Top US banks to lose out from end of SLR relief
Average G-Sib will see SLR decline 90 basis points using Q4 2020 figures
At 40% of EU banks, credit risk own-funds deviate from benchmarks
Eleven banks lowballed capital requirements without justification in latest exercise
Fourteen EU banks face sanctions for poor market risk models
Twenty lenders lowballed capital requirements
At Canada’s ‘Big Five’, counterparty and op RWAs grew in 2020
Credit, market RWAs ebbed over the year
Swaps, repo counterparties of US banks grew riskier in 2020
At Citi, counterparty credit RWAs for OTC portfolios increased 51%
High-earning banks set aside more Covid provisions – BIS
Provisions across 70 banks in H1 2020 were almost quadruple those taken in H2 2019
Top US banks’ market risk charges surged in 2020
Citi ended year with highest charge of the G-Sibs, at almost $9 billion
UK banks count cost of EU software capital reversal
Average CET1 ratio would fall 29 basis points
Ailing loans added $15bn to StanChart’s RWAs in 2020
Effects of credit deterioration offset by disposals, portfolio reductions
Regulatory breaks strengthened EU banks’ CET1 ratios in 2020
In spite of Covid turmoil, top lenders improved their CET1 ratios by around 70bp on average
Model reviews imposed capital charges on top EU banks in Q4
Societe Generale incurred a -36bp hit to its CET1 ratio due to Trim
ING takes capital hit for lowballing loan-loss provisions
NPE coverage ratio fell over Q4
State guarantees saved UniCredit €8bn in RWAs through 2020
Italian lender has €20.8 billion of government-backed loans on its books
Easing of op risk add-on boosts Commonwealth Bank
Op RWA relief offset increases due to credit, market risk
Synthetic risk transfer plumps SocGen’s capital buffer
Risk transfer and CET1 relief smooth out add-on for model risk at the French bank
Solvency ratios of EU life insurers continued to fall in Q3
In contrast, the median capital ratio of groups and non-life firms increased
Regulatory headwinds to amp Deutsche’s RWAs in 2021
Targeted review of internal models to add €4bn of RWAs in 2021
EBA stress test to gird banks for long Covid depression
Real GDP projected to fall -12.9% from baseline by 2023
ECB’s Covid capital relief boosted too-big-to-fail banks
Capital headroom increased 176%
UBS factors in Covid shock to stressed VAR, causing RWA surge
Market RWAs increased 11% quarter on quarter
At US G-Sibs, modelled RWAs outpaced standardised in 2020
Ratio of advanced approaches RWAs to regulator-set measure declined in the wake of the Covid recession