Better late than never

This is odd.  The Irish Times and the Wall Street Journal seem to have gotten the same background briefing on the new framework for financial regulation to be announced  next week, but it was the WSJ that identified the more obvious scoop –

[The Central Bank/Regulator] also will present plans for a new national system for dealing with failing banks, which would mirror the one established in the U.K., a person familiar with the plans said Thursday.

In other words, they’re going to take off the shelf the UK Special Resolution Regime which has been in place for 16 months and had a precursor all the way back to Northern Rock.  Which they could have done a year ago and notwithstanding the way that the blanket guarantee limited the resolution options for Anglo (as Honohan emphasized), we might have more options now than to continue to fork over the Lenihan/Cowen 22 billion to Anglo.

But still.  With a resolution regime on the books, and the European Commission looking out for our best interests on the guarantee, there might still be a way to limit the bleeding.   It doesn’t seem like a promising summer for anyone involved with Irish banks to have long holiday plans.