. . . says Thomas Mayer, a former IMF economist and former Chief Economist of Deutsche Bank Group and Head of DB Research, and now a Deutcshe Bank Senior Advisor. In a letter today to the Financial Times, Mayer writes:
But no reform can make banking really safe as long as the industry operates within a fractional reserve system, where banks create “inside” money (for example sight deposits) by extending credit and promise to exchange this against “outside” money at any time on demand.
Mayer goes on to cite Austrian monetary and business-cycle theorist Jesus Huerta de Soto on the causal connection between fractional reserves and banking crises throughout history. He points out: “Since there is no single state in the eurozone able to bail out banks in a systemic crisis, a banking regime without state backing is needed.” He concludes his letter with a four-step plan for “comprehensive” banking reform that would implement just such a regime:
First, define as safe an asset that can be converted any time and under any circumstances at face value into legal tender. Second, create safe (”insured”) deposits by requiring banks to back them fully with reserves at the central bank. Third, create a cascade of loss-absorbing bank liabilities, starting starting with bank equity and ending with investor deposits (not subject to the 100 percent reserve holding). Fourth, make banks treat eurozone government bonds as assets that can default and help them to reduce their holding of these bonds.
Mayer discusses his proposal for 100 percent reserves in more detail in a policy paper published by the Centre for European Policies Studies.
HT to Toby Baxendale.
