Sixteen months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and the near failure of the financial system, the world’s governments and financial regulators are still some way from agreeing the inevitable new set of rules that will shape the landscape of financial markets and, hopefully, prevent crises of such magnitude in the future.
Finding common ground will not be easy. European banks still complain about the failure of their US counterparts to institute Basle I. US banks counter that European banks are relatively over-leveraged. Each will seek to gain an advantage.
European banks are in no mood, however, to lay down to their US competitors. An off-the-record discussion with one of Europe’s senior bankers threw light...
