In attempt to restore some semblance of stability to financial markets and the money-go-round in general, Gordon Brown will be calling on banks to be more upfront about impending ‘bad news’.
The PM will be taking the opportunity of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s state visit this week to ‘labour’ the point.
Top of the agenda at their summit on Thursday, at Arsenal’s Emirates stadium, will be the need for a review of how bank’s assets and liabilities are assessed - and just as importantly - made public.
As global bad debt soars to an estimated £300 billion it is clear that internal accounting for ‘funny money’ isn’t really that funny any more.
With incidents here and in the US with Northern Rock and Bear Stearns, not to mention Soc Gen - debacle is a French word after all - it is very clear that having the world’s traders hanging on the next piece of bad news ain’t a great way to monitor the banking sector’s stability.
The PM and the President will call on G7, the IMF and The World Bank to drive for greater transparency in reporting and monitoring of the global purse.
To use another French expression, isn’t that their raison d’etre?
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1 Bad Debt » Blog Archive » Brown orders bad debt honesty from banks // Mar 25, 2008 at 6:57 am
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