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Examples of moral suasion by central banks and bank regulators include the following:
Bailouts. A healthy domestic bank may be asked to rescue a smaller failing bank. Privately owned banks are better able to resist this particular pressure than state-controlled banks but may be given little option. A foreign-owned bank is much better placed to resist such coercion.
Lending restraints. The central bank may ask banks to restrain their lending to a particular sector, usually the real estate market. This may be done informally or through the imposition of a limit on the proportion of total loans that a bank can lend to a particular sector.
In Hong Kong, for example, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority effectively imposed a 40% limit on the proportion of loans that a bank could extend to real estate developers and investors and for residential mortgages in the mid-1990s. Rapid asset inflation had pushed property prices to the point where they were among the highest in the world. The prudence of this policy was shown when property prices reversed in the late 1990s and approximately 40% of mortgagors found themselves with negative equity.
Directed lending. The central bank may set loan growth targets for individual banks at an overall level, by economic sector or by group of customers. These targets are intended to support government policy whether economic or social. The following are just a few such examples
In Taiwan the ruling government has at times instructed banks to give preferential treatment to people and companies adversely affected by earthquakes. This may be wor thy but could have been addressed in a more equitable way by the government making direct grants to the affected par ties so that they could meet their financial obligations.
In the US banks have to meet legislative requirements to lend to particular groups of people to support national housing policies and to prevent discrimination based on location. A high proportion of deposits gathered in a particular area, such as an inner city ghetto, must be lent out in that locale, for example.
In South Korea in the 1990s successive governments encouraged banks to lend to particular industrial groups and sectors. Banks were expected to support governments’ objectives to create and nurture national champions.
In some countries tax relief is given on part of the interest paid on home loans but is not given for rental expenses. This distorts the housing market by encouraging home ownership at the expense of those living in rented accommodation. In addition profits made from an individual selling their primary residence are exempt from capital gains taxation which is applied to profits made from trading other forms of assets.