This is a little unnerving . . . . .
Lehman weekend 2.0
Which brings us to the punchline of Pozsar's warning: "there is no difference between Lehman unable to pay back money funds because its tri-party clearing agent is unwilling to unwind o/n repo trades, and banks unable to receive and make payments because they are out of SWIFT." He then adds that the Herstatt risk – or settlement risk – owes its name to a mishap at a single bank, but "the risk in the current scenario involves an entire country’s banking system."
And here comes Pozsar with another Lehman analogy:
Banks’ inability to make payments due to their exclusion from SWIFT is the same as Lehman’s inability to make payments due to its clearing bank’s unwillingness to send payments on its behalf. History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes…
Lehman weekend 2.0
Which brings us to the punchline of Pozsar's warning: "there is no difference between Lehman unable to pay back money funds because its tri-party clearing agent is unwilling to unwind o/n repo trades, and banks unable to receive and make payments because they are out of SWIFT." He then adds that the Herstatt risk – or settlement risk – owes its name to a mishap at a single bank, but "the risk in the current scenario involves an entire country’s banking system."
And here comes Pozsar with another Lehman analogy:
Banks’ inability to make payments due to their exclusion from SWIFT is the same as Lehman’s inability to make payments due to its clearing bank’s unwillingness to send payments on its behalf. History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes…
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