by MrBill » Wed 21 Feb 2007, 11:21:00
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MonteQuest', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MrBill', 'S')o Big Bank has $100 on deposit from you. Where do they get the other $900 to lend out?
That's why it is called
fractional reserve banking. You don't have to have the $900 to lend it out, you only need the $100 in reserve to make the ledger entry.
I am surprised you don't have a grasp of this.
Well, considering I manage $2.5 billion in assets and have a funding book of over $750-900 million I guess I do understand that my nostro accounts always have to be fully funded. I cannot lend out more money than I have. If it is not physically there I need to borrow it.
Capital adequacy rules and minimum reserves mean that banks cannot lend out more than let us say 90% of my primary deposits, if they have to keep 10% as minimum reserves with the central bank.
Actually, I am not a bank, so I have very complicated CAD rules and I do not keep any money at the central bank. But that is because I am an licensed investment firm regulated by the CySEC and not a bank.
But I have certainly traded foreign exchange and money markets in banks for many years both in the USA and abroad, so I can tell you exactly how it works. Because actually, I do have a grasp of this, MQ! ; - )
If I have $100 in deposits and need to lend $900, but my CAD is 10%, per this example, then I need to borrow that $900 from the Interbank money market. I just cannot create a ledger entry. The money has to be there in my account to transfer to the account of my loan customer.
The reserve requirement only applies to primary deposits of which banks have to hold back 10%. As far as the Interbank money market goes they can borrow and lend out as much as they want. Although, under Tier I & Tier II CAD (Basel II) rules they have to provision for any risky assets on their balance sheet such as non-OECD bonds or corporate loans.
But at all times the bank's nostro accounts have to be in plus. In every currency that they deal in. Their nostro accounts with other banks have to be also covered. If they are a primary dealer, their DTC account at the Fed, too. If they do not have the liquidity, they have to borrow it. Eventually, from the central bank if they cannot get it in the Interbank market.
And even then not always. During the Czech currency crisis the Czech central bank refused to lend to me saying they would only guarantee Czech domestic banks and not foreign branches operating in the Czech Republic. So there you go, lender of last resort also has its limits and qualifications.
The point being is that banks cannot create money out of thin air. They have to borrow it. That is why they pay interest on deposits or otherwise try to attract clients through their private banking, asset mangement and other departments. They also borrow through the money markets from one another. Or issue bonds to raise capital. The equity markets are also another source of potential funding for them.
But at the end of the day their cost of capital is the combined interest expense that you will see on every bank's balance sheet if you look. And on the other side of the balance sheet you will see their net income from lending.
So please. Don't tell me fairytales about the creation of money and fractional banking when you really mean the expansion of credit and the money multiplier effect.
The organized state is a wonderful invention whereby everyone can live at someone else's expense.