Quotes of the month

“When these large global banks report their risk-weighted capital ratios, their creditworthiness is flattered because of their assessment of risks in the asset base. This is a fools-errand; it’s like asking a school-kid what grade they deserve”

Thomas Hoenig, vice chairman of the FDIC, pushes hard on his agenda to make the leverage ratio the key criteria for bank regulation

“Even in a worst case scenario where all ties between Russia and the west are frozen, I think we would still be able to do good business”

Sergei Monin, CEO of Raiffeisenbank in Russia, might find his confidence tested by the plunge of the rouble at the end of 2014

“We would prefer [foreign lenders] to leave rather than to stay and be zombie banks. Either they clean up, restructure and get scale, or they sell to someone who will”

Hungary’s financial policy minister Gábor Orban gives a sharp message to foreign banks in his country

“It is still very early days but what we are seeing is the exciting emergence of a new asset class”

Sameer Sehgal, head of EMEA trade finance at Citi, echoes the views of clients in Euromoney’s annual trade finance survey who want to see greater use of securitization