tailieunhanh - PUBLIC POLICY FOR THE PRIVATE SECTOR: The Leverage Ratio

In collaboration with the Programme MicroSave Africa, Postbanks in Kenya and Tanzania designed and introduced flexible savings accounts with unrestricted withdrawals to accommodate small busi- ness people who want to transact regularly. However, the success of these products went beyond the original target group with many banks’ passbook owners shifting and subscribing. Over time the success of Bidii account and Domiciled Quick account also reached high value account holders Bidii Account and Quick Account are card based and computer operated. This has allowed cutting dramatically the service delivery time per client, hence improving the quality of the service and pro- viding a. | THE WORLD BANK GROUP FINANCIAL AND PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT VICE PRESIDENCY DECEMBER 2009 NOTE NUMBER 1 1 Katia D Hulster crisis response The Leverage Ratio A New Binding Limit on Banks Katia D Hulster Jklhulstee@worldbank .org is a senior financial sector specialist ik the Financial Systems Department of the World Bank. This is the 11th in a series of policy briefs on the crisis assessing the policy responses shedding light on financial reforms currently under debate and providing insights for emerging-market policy maaker. THE WORLD BANK OFC I International Finance Corporation World Bank Group Excessive leverage by banks is widely believed to have contributed to the global financial crisis. To address this the international community has proposed the adoption of a non-risk-based capital measure the leverage ratio as an additional prudential tool to complement minimum capital adequacy requirements. Its adoption can reduce the risk of excessive leverage building up in individual entities and in the financial system as a whole. The leverage ratio has inherent limitations however and should therefore be considered as just one of a set of macro- and micro-prudential policy tools. Excessive leverage by banks is widely believed to have contributed to the global financial crisis FSB 2009 FSA 2009 . As a result the G-20 and the Financial Stability Board have proposed the introduction of a leverage ratio to supplement risk-based measures of regulatory What is leverage Leverage allows a financial institution to increase the potential gains or losses on a position or investment beyond what would be possible through a direct investment of its own funds. There are three types of leverage balance sheet economic and embedded and no single measure can capture all three dimensions simultaneously. The first definition is based on balance sheet concepts the second on market-dependent future cash flows and the third on market risk. Balance sheet leverage is the most .