After the spectacular chaos of the last time that regulators and governments scrambled to rescue banks in the US and Europe, they have hammered out a plan for the next time. It is better than the absence of one in 2008 but who knows if it will work?
The authorities can run all kinds of stress tests on the capital structures of the world’s largest banks, trying to predict how well they would bear losses in a future crisis. The stress test they really need to run is on themselves – whether they will stick to their promise to work nicely with each other or will revert to self-interest.
In a truly serious crisis – the kind that only tends to come along every few decades – I suspect it would still be every bank regulator for itself. That is not to rubbish the efforts of the Financial Stability Board, which this week unveiled a plan to deal with troubled banks. It is merely to point out a reality that no amount of goodwill can erase.