EU in rare outbreak of sanity

Well, the title is a little dependent on whether or not you think extending securitisation is a good thing or not as a financial product.

But on the face of it this is a relaxation of the capital rules that is quite clever. European banks have not been very effective at reducing their bad debts in the past 7 years; I am looking at you Deutsche Bank.

As a result, with the chances being that we are nearer the next recession than the last, they need to get a move of with fixing that roof whilst the sun is shining. To do this, securitising away their books will hugely reduce their capital exposure and dump it on pension funds instead...

So, in a nice turnaround, a move that actually makes the EU market more Anglo-Saxon just happens to be the right remedy for the European Banks. On the downside it is a big step towards aiding the setting up of a full banking union.

That though will be held up until reform of bankruptcy laws which may literally take forever given the various byzantine systems that exist in every EU country.