The annual audit of British banks may prove a turning-point for a sector battered by concerns over bad debt and capital needs, new trade and investment minister Mervyn Davies was quoted on Saturday as saying. Davies, who stepped down as chairman of Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered to help the government tackle the fallout of the financial crisis, said the audit should help dispel fears of more surprises and stabilise market confidence.
"Once the year-end is out of the way this could be something of a watershed in terms of understanding the situation on capital, liquidity and what is left on balance sheets," he told the Financial Times. "Once that's over, those numbers will have been audited and we can draw a line." Markets have been spooked by the possibility that some British banks could need more state help or be nationalised despite government reassurances and a bank rescue package announced last Monday, sending shares tumbling during the week.
The FT also reported that officials from the Treasury, Bank of England and Financial Services Authority met banks and investment funds last week to discuss how authorities would treat shares and banking bonds in any further state bailout. City Minister Paul Myners told The Times newspaper that nationalisation was not the solution to the banks' problems, although he could not rule anything out.
"I always say you can never rule anything out, but I believe that strong independent commercial banks are the best way to manage the division of credit in our economy," he was quoted as saying. He did not rule out further bailouts either and that there could be a further bailout of the sector. "There may well be (a bailout)," he was quoted as saying. "Who knows? It depends how we negotiate these things.
Myners also said that Britain expects to have to insure significant amounts of assets under its new insurance scheme, announced as part of the rescue package. He said the cost to the taxpayer was as yet unclear. "There are very, very substantial impaired assets in British banks," he said. "We should expect requests to insure significant pools of assets." Davies said he would look to modernise his new job by launching a blog and using video and e-mail to communicate with the business world.
"These are very unusual times and this is an opportunity to do a little bit of national services," he told the FT. "Each industry has different requirements of the government. (...) We've got to help them go international - because for a lot of our industries their future is in buoyant exports and becoming international businesses and not purely domestic."