These regulations help to ensure a minimum level of capital at individual institutions and in the aggregate that we consider to be absolutely vital to the health of our banking system and the economy more broadly.
Global economic activity is expected to contract by an annualized 6 percent in the first quarter of 2009 – the same as in the fourth quarter of 2008. Policy making around the world is in clearly uncharted territory. Governments and central banks across countries have responded to the crisis through big, aggressive and unconventional measures.