And these are just two of the things that help to make banks more resilient. So the regulatory base has been made more solid. But it needs to be more than solid; it also needs to be level. The rules for banks should, in general, be harmonised across countries. Only then would banks be able to compete on a level playing field.
But what’s the scope for harmonisation? Here, we should be bold, in my view. The financial sector is global in scope, and so should be the rules that govern it. And after the crisis, it was precisely this idea that drove the work on a global rulebook: Basel III. But since then, the political landscape has changed.