It is a time of clichés for banks as they currently find themselves caught in a Catch-22, stuck between a rock and a hard place. In the UK, government initiatives such as ‘Project Merlin’ have been put in place to encourage banks to lend more freely. At the same time, new regulations or initiatives such as Basel III, Recovery and Resolution plans and leverage limits are coming to the fore, increasing the capital adequacy and liquidity requirements for banks around the world. So how do banks walk