Reflections on the election

A newly issued ICMA Centre discussion paper looks into the recent financial crisis and into whether banks could survive a new Great Depression. Simone Varotto, Teaching Fellow at the ICMA Centre, investigates whether banks complying with current and proposed bank capital regulation would set aside enough capital reserves to survive a Great Depression scenario, the severe worldwide economic downturn that occured in the 1930s.

Research shows that the global impact of coronavirus is likely to take much longer to recover from than initially thought, particularly financially with the loss of many businesses and jobs and the imminent recession.

Munich, 16 October 2013 – There is currently a high level of uncertainty on the international financial markets, due to the budget dispute in the USA surrounding the proposed raising of the borrowing limit. The markets are waiting with bated breath to see whether the Democrats and the Republicans will be able to agree on raising the debt ceiling, which currently stands at just under 17 trillion US dollars. The key question for investors is whether the USA and other countries will be able to pay back the debts they have taken on or whether, as in the case of the debt cut in Greece, they can expect to see losses on their investments. A recent study based on sustainability rating agency oekom research’s country ratings shows that sustainability ratings are a reliable indicator of countries’ solvency and that taking sustainability ratings into account allows investors to make a better assessment of the overall risks.