The return of risk-it Ralph
Ralph McKay, an idiosyncratic but informed industry commentator from the 1980s, made a return appearance in second round submissions to The Financial System Inquiry.In his submission, McKay proposes that banks pool a great deal of risk data on their portfolios. He calls it the Universal Banking System Risk Manager. McKay imagines "a single matrix of current risk measures for the bank. This risk matrix is then transmitted electronically and automatically to a central banking system server which holds the risk data for each bank and also produces a single consolidated risk matrix for the entire banking system."This system-wide risk matrix and the individual bank risk matrices are published live on a bank risk watch website," he wrote in his submission."At this point market risk for the defined banking system is transparent to the market."McKay said "the risks [would be] managed naturally, incrementally by market pressure in the most effective manner possible."He hopes that "every banking system in all countries [would be] invited to join, aiming for a global banking system risk watch website. "A market that observes itself continuously is perpetually in its most resilient state," he wrote. "Unacceptable and unexplained risk is seen immediately it exists. There are no growing dark risk holes."Threatening risk is continuously reshaped by market forces. Market pressures act like a shield protecting the integrity of the system," he said.