This is the beginning of the de-leveraging process in the UK... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...-Turner-signals-crackdown-on-carry-trade.html
"little or no useful social" purpose. What a hypocrite. Didn't he defend Lloyds the Bank Employee bonus debacle? Doesn't Lloyds have a prop unit dealing in currencies? http://www.lloydstsbcorporatemarkets.com/corporateservices/riskmanagement/forex.asp Unless they were sep. divisions and employees, or I have the wrong Lord?
Hopefully, the European banks have enough incentive to make sure that de-leveraging does not happen on their continent..... I would think that they certainly have more political wherewithal to make sure this does not happen since we are not talking only about peanut-currency bucketshops - and are talking about multi-billion dollar banks.... In any event, I think that 2010 will be the end of generous leverage for retail accounts worldwide. Let's revisit this topic on 1/1/11