The Hazards of Government-Owned Banks

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/02/the-hazards-of-government-owned-banks

The Financial Times has a long and somewhat instructive account of Hypo Group Alpe Adria, a bank that had been majority-owned by the Austrian state of Carinthia, which sold off most of its stake in 2007. The bank was nationalized by the government of Austria in December 2009. The FT's report is convoluted, but it seems like a mess, even by the standards of banks in the 2008 to 2009 period. Anyway, a reminder that government owners don't always do better than private managers, and that not all problem banks can be blamed on the failures of American regulators or American banking law.

by Editor  |  Feb 2, 2010 at 3:04 pm Related Topics:  Banking, Capital Markets Regulation, Europe receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list