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Inci and Erik,
An interesting piece -- I have really enjoyed reading it.
You say that “some degree of bank deleveraging was necessary”, and you quote market participants who expect a further deleveraging of about EUR 2-3 trillion for the European banking system over the next two years.
This leads to two questions in my mind.
First, is there any estimate on how much deleveraging can be considered necessary? Would the expected EUR 2-3 trillion, for example, go beyond what would be necessary?
Second, and perhaps more fundamentally, do you have a sense to what extent the existing deleveraging is just a "symptomatic treatment” of the excessive leverage of the past, and to what extent it reflects a real change in the underlying incentives of banks' managers, regulators, and others?
Martin Cihak