Wall Street R.I.P

From Tech Ticker more details on the GS and Morgan status change.


  • Their primary regulator will now be the Fed Reserve, not the SEC. This will make them subject to tighter disclosure and regulatory requirements.
  • They will be able to accept bank deposits, which eventually should provide a more stable base of financing (but not "stable").
  • They will have better access to the Fed's lending facilities.
  • They may be able to avoid mark-to-market accounting on some of their assets, instead accounting for them as "held to maturity," the way banks do. This could be huge, as it's the mark to market that has killed the capital ratios of many firms.
  • They will more easily be able to buy or merge with banks, thus rapidly increasing the size of their deposit bases.
  • They will likely decrease their leverage: Morgan Stanley is talking about moving from 20X+ to 10X-15X.


There it is. Funny, there used to be a time where GS wouldn't take your account if you were under $5M. Now you can walk up to a counter? uh... humility?

Second the bit that scares me is the last one with M4 delevering. That is going to hurt but I assume the FED is going to make sure the transition is smooth?

Comments

Tango Juliet said…
Then. what about this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2008/09/taxpayers_recapitalise_banks.html

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