Lloyds TSB - Neelie does it again!

This is a full-time job - keeping up with the arbitrary rulings of an unelected bureaucrat in the twilight years of a career spent sailing through various public sector jobs! Mrs. Kroes even finds time to chair Poets of all Nations in her spare time. But on a more serious note we think that the latest threat to Lloyds TSB - while maybe justified in principle - is lacking any moral justification as long as no one (and we wait for contributions from any reader who can provide them) has given us an explicit explanation of the yardsticks that the EU Kommissars apply in their rulings. (see our earlier comment further down for more on this scandal).

Employment Tribunals as job destroyers

The avalanche of employment legislation during the past 10+ years certainly has done nothing to make London - or the UK - a more attractive location for business. Blaming the EU does not wash as most of the legislation was home grown. A particularly vexing institution for employers are the employment tribunals. They can only be described as 'shadow' courts where normal standards of due process and above all common sense do not exist. While employees often can feel unjustly treated by their superiors and colleagues - and we would have a few stories to tell as well - the growing absurdity of the claims made by some employees can only be explained by a desire to abuse the tribunals in order to make a fast buck - or million in some cases. Young people just past the mark of 30 years claim to have suffered nervous breakdowns, be tormented by nightmares and claim to be unable for any work because of bad treatment they have suffered at work. No proper proof is needed if implausible accusations picked right out of a soap opera are taken at face value by members of the tribunal who are unaccountable and hold their positions thanks to the machinations of an inscrutable government bureaucracy. And best (or worst) of all - the accusing employee has no costs to bear, file a claim and let the system take care of the rest. We can only say - foreign employer, if you come to Britain, be warned!

IIR warns on lack of global banking rules

We usually view the opinions of the Institute of International Finance with a pinch of salt as it is a think tank and/or lobby funded by the banking industry. Yesterday's appeal to the participants of the forthcoming G20 meeting in Pittsburgh served as a reminder that one year after the collapse of Lehman and more than two years into the banking and credit crisis precious little progress has been made to forge a consistent solution to prevent a similar crisis in the future. We doubt that high-profile meetings will really produce more than pious sermons and suggest that a congress should be organised with the task to iron out a lasting solution. After all, the Congress of Vienna was also not just a photo-opportunity for the assembled dignitaries and the same can be said for the Continental Congress in the 13 founding colonies in America.

BIS report: higher taxes on larger banks

A new study by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS/BIZ) suggests that large banks should be taxed at a higher level to compensate for the risk that they pose to the taxpayer. But I think that differentiating tax rates for of different size would open a can of worms - what is the right level of tax? what size is the cut-off point for different tax rates? A more simple way to restrict the trend to ever-larger banks would be to limit the (implicit or explicit) state guarantee to a certain amount. This would give an incentive to clients and depositors to spread their business around and lead to a more balanced industry.

Neelie Kroes dabbles in bonus debate

We would have been disappointed if Neelie Kroes would not have tried to get involved in the debate about banker's pay and bonuses. After all, every bureaucrat has a natural urge to increase his power whenever and where ever the opportunity exists to do so. And even better when the taxpayer pays for you and the citizen has no chance to control your action. However, when judging the competence level of Ms. Kroes' department we always have to remind ourselves of the curious fact that while the department refuses to give detailed information about the background of its staff there are the portraits of the drivers on the website. Talk about high life in Brussels! Repeated requests to disclose the yardsticks that are applied during the investigation of competition cases have been stonewalled. So we do not expect that it will be made transparent what type of bonus and pay regulations will be applied in the case of banks that receive state support.

Change of guard at Morgan Stanley

As John Mack moves from the role of CEO to become Chairman of Morgan Stanley at lot of coverage will be given to his record at the firm after his return four years ago. I think that he has done a remarkable job given that his tenure encompassed the most challenging two years that any leader of a financial services firm has ever had to live through. The stock price of MS at one stage priced in a possible demise of the firm (the same happened to most other bank and broker shares) and was an inevitable exaggeration caused by a market panic. Structurally, however, Morgan Stanley suffers from the merger with Dean Witter ten years ago. One of the great advantages the main rival, Goldman Sachs, enjoys is the fact that the firm in all its history only ever pursued small add-on acquisitions. This organic growth solidified the company culture and created the opportunity to develop the firm's leadership without recourse to outside hires.

What is 'socially useless' banking?

Senior Bankers have recently felt compelled to contribute to the debate about so-called 'socially useless banking'. The key question would be the definition of what is or is not socially useful/useless. I think one could well leave the answer to the market. No one is compelled to buy supposedly 'useless' products, be they derivatives, hedge funds or - to generalise the problem - expensive luxury watches or cars. Common sense should be enough to settle the question. Unfortunately there are many ideologically motivated fellow travellers joining the discussion as it appears to be a good opportunity to pursue aims that have little to do with the problem (more state, more taxes etc)

London Hedge Funds stay despite tax hikes

We would not celebrate too early and condone the long-term impact of higher prospective tax rates on London's standing as a financial centre. The effects will modify behaviour only at the margin and as taxes are admittedly not the only factor that is considered when locating a business the impact will be diluted by the weights businesspeople attribute to these other factors (legal and other services, infrastructure, quality of life, availability of skilled labor). The real danger is only that once a certain tipping point is reached decline can be very rapid and irreversible.

Ossie rallies the troops at UBS

Having undergone an interview with the taciturn no-nonsense Ossie Gruebel when he was the head of Eurobond dealing at Credit Suisse White Weld in the late 1970s I always carry the highest respect for him ever since. UBS is still a brand name that will make it easy for clients to forget the missteps of the past few years as long as they get the right service. Reading the memo that Gruebel penned for his staff of 70,000 I cannot help but think that maybe the staff numbers are still a little bit on the high side.

The Fed CAN monitor systemic risks

A senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute argues that the Fed cannot monitor systemic risk as that would be tantamount to ask a thief to police himself. Without going into the details of his argument several aspects come to mind that would negate this judgement: until now the mandate of the Fed was not strongly focused on playing the role of a regulator of the financial markets and system. Instead, price stability and economic growth were given priority if not exclusive attention. That mistakes were made in this department cannot be denied (and they are partly due to the mixed message sent by the duality of the set targets). But that does not mean that the Fed could not be more effective if it is empowered to be a more forceful regulator. We would also hope that the Fed does not only monitor risk but will have the tools to prevent them in good time.