My former colleague Tony Curmi’s and veteran economist Karm Farrugia’s letters (July 21) about certain measures that could be taken by the authorities and/or regulators in an effort at ever more protection for bank depositors, are very much in the line of part of my previous week’s article on the subject. To what they suggest I might also add that the range of creative tools available to regulators and law makers can indeed be vast.

For example: What serious thought has been, or is being given to having certain obligatory dividend distribution restraint policies in efforts towards capital adequacy and enhancement (particularly in the case of the smaller banks)?

Isn’t the level and composition of obligatory reserves still within the powers of the regulators?

Similarly, does the Central Bank also still have the old “on the nod and the wink” level of influence over banks’ policies such as can “enforce” them to enhance general reserves from time to time?

These used to be selective lending policy controls too. Such as both quantitative and qualitative, that is, to what sectors and how much can financing be directed. (This all seems to have been lost in the wash of monetary policy control that is being lost to Brussels/Frankfurt.)

Another measure is increasing the banks’ enforced regular contributions towards the statutory deposit protection funds at certain times.

Stress tests are important but aren’t they very much of a once-done-it’s-over thing?

This indeed was a criticism I heard on some media being levelled by competent observers at the ECB just before the recent second round. I have on an EU level, much more hope for the new tripartite (banking, insurance, securities/pensions) regulatory bodies whose main impacts should start being felt around 2013-2014.