The European banking crisis that didn’t happen in 2023

Agnès Bénassy-Quéré in this article writes how Europe avoided a banking crisis in 2023:

After the pandemic, and the energy crisis, Europe could have faced a banking crisis in March. Indeed, the banking world was rocked by the successive failures of several US regional banks and the emergency takeover of Credit Suisse, a globally systemic bank, by UBS (Chart 1). Bank share prices were hit in both the euro area and the United States, but they quickly recovered, although without returning to pre-March levels. So how was it possible to prevent the domino effect so often observed during financial crises?

As the Banque de France’s latest report on Assessment of Risks to the French Financial System (June 2023) points out, contagion did not occur for two main reasons: (1) The crisis was addressed extremely quickly by the US and Swiss authorities, and (2) the European banking system was well prepared to withstand turbulence, following the major regulatory and supervisory reforms implemented in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Release of first Handbook of National Pension System Statistics (2023)

PFRDA has released Handbook of National Pension System Statistics (2023). This is the first such handbook.

PFRDA Chairperson Dr Deepak Mohanty writes the Foreword:

Currently, the PFRDA provides information on NPS and APY on regular basis in its Annual Report, Pension Bulletin, and through press releases. However, there is no comprehensive source on pension (NPS and APY) statistics.

With the objective of bridging this gap, I have the pleasure to release the first edition of Handbook of National Pension System (NPS) Statistics. It provides time-series and cross-sectional data at one place on various parameters such as scheme-wise number of subscribers and their demographic profile, asset under management, contributions, withdrawals, grievance resolutions, net asset values (NAVs) for the period 2008-09 to 2022-23. The information is provided on annual, monthly, and daily frequencies in an extractable mode. 

It will definitely help researchers..

Just one request from PFRDA. Release all the data files as both one excel and one pdf file. Easier to navigate and understand data in that manner.

Harmonising banking definitions is a key step to simplifying the regulatory system

RBI recently harmonised banking defintions.

My article in moneycontrol on the importance of this unstated reform.

Ambiguities can never be completely removed as there can never be a perfect system. As banking evolves, new regulations will be required, which in turn will lead to new types of complexity and ambiguities