BoE eyes minimum risk rule for banks' home loans

LONDON: A person is silhouetted as he walks past The Bank of England, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London, Britain, November 5, 2020. REUTERS/John Sibley/File Photo

There is a "strong case" for minimum 'risk weightings' on mortgages across all banks to ensure fair competition in the home loans market, Bank of England Deputy Governor Sam Woods said on Wednesday.

Woods said there is a "strong prudential case for some minimum expectations" on how banks attach risk weights to mortgages on their books, a calculation that determines how much capital lenders hold to cover any loans that turn sour. Equity markets drifted in Asian trade as investors bide their time ahead of the release of key US jobs figures later in the week.

As European football clubs struggle to make up for revenue lost in the pandemic, one untapped source of revenue is stadium naming rights, but exploiting them may not be straightforward. Many football fans have long opposed clubs selling their history, and, during the European Super League fiasco, supporters made clear their hostility to trading tradition for cash.

Furthermore, some big-money sport sponsors, notably airlines, have also been hit hard by Covid-19 restrictions. "Many European sports clubs have long been missing out on millions worth of stadia naming sponsorship fees annually," Bryn Anderson, an analyst specialising in sports economics at auditing firm KPMG, told AFP.

Today, only 29 of the 98 clubs in the top divisions in England, Germany, Italy, Spain and France, Europe's 'big five' leagues play in named stadiums.