The third leg of European banking union, the common deposit insurance scheme, has been postponed until an unspecified reduction in bank risk has been achieved. A reduction in banks’ domestic sovereign exposure has (mostly rightly) been identified as an objective, potentially via risk-weighting sovereigns. However, risk-weighting sovereigns is the wrong way to go because it both undermines the most fundamental concepts of government and governance (trust), and would build a strongly pro-cyclical element into policy making. There are simpler and better ways to achieve standardised limits on banks’ exposure to sovereigns.
Erik F. Nielsen
Erik F. Nielsen is Group Chief Economist and Global Head of CIB Research at Unicredit Bank. In this role Erik is responsible for forming and communicating the overall macroeconomic and policy views of UniCredit Group.
Prior to joining UniCredit in September 2011, Erik worked for 15 years as an economist at Goldman Sachs in New York and London, where his most recent role was Chief European Economist overseeing the European and CEE economics teams. Before joining Goldman he spent ten years in Washington DC working as an economist for the IMF and World Bank in various capacities, including as country economist for Russia and Turkey, and as a debt expert working on sovereign debt workouts around the world.
Erik started his career as an economist at the Danish Central Bank in Copenhagen, where he worked mostly on European economic and exchange rate issues. He also taught for two years at the Copenhagen Business School. He holds a graduate degree in Economics from the University of Copenhagen.
Erik is one of the most frequently quoted economists in the financial media with regular appearances, including as guest host, on CNBC, Bloomberg TV and other channels.