Are UK banks slipping back into the old routine?

[Nicholas Wallwork]

Over the years there have been numerous occasions when the banking community has been accused of overextending finance to the property sector. Even though traditional affordability indicators were most certainly overextended, on many occasions the banks continued to roll out finance to property investors. In theory the banks could argue that their capital, and loan

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[nmb]

It may be a little unfair to say banks are slipping back into the old routine but there is definitely more competition for business today. Are the banks starting to increase their risk profile again?

 

[lookinginvest]

Increasing their risk profile is probably a better description than "slipping back into the old routine". Surely the authorities cannot afford to go through yet another financial crisis due to mismanagement? There are already concerns that some parts of the European Union such as Greece and Italy, with France also extremely weak economically at the moment, are looking into the financial abyss. This is probably a time for banks to be stricter and take less risk to protect their own capital base going forward - especially if we were to move towards another financial crisis.

Many people automatically assume the worst is over but there are signs of further weakness in some European economies and the threat of contagion is high. Not a time to be letting down your guard!

 

[nmb]

Confidence in the European Union is extremely low at the moment but are we really on the verge of another financial crisis? In theory, could a UK exit bring the European project crashing down?