“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”
Rahm Emanuel, former White House Chief of Staff
Looking in the rearview mirror, the recent U.S. subprime crisis seemed to be precipitated by a cauldron of events which were embedded in the fundamental problem that credit risk management was compromised on various levels. Naturally with a few years of hindsight, academics, economists, regulators, and supervisors have all wondered how the crisis could have been adverted or at least mitigated.
In this light, the existence of information data gaps and the importance of complete, accurate and timely credit information in the financial system have become more poignant. As a result of accelerated financial innovation, the banks offered new, but opaque, vehicles for investment. This made it difficult to assess risk levels and the true extent of credit leverage. Thus, as financial institutions began to develop and issue more convoluted instruments, credit risk management became more imprecise and at times erroneous. Without proper regulatory oversight and amid highly liquid credit markets (i.e. high demand for CDOs, ABSs, etc.), it further enabled banks to loosen their lending policies and thus continue to take riskier positions. As this occurred, banking supervisors and regulators often lacked the appropriate information to readily monitor the developments unfolding in the marketplace.
