SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes via Historinhas | Even in Sweden, where 4 years ago the Riksbank decided there was “too much debt” and raised rates to “calm people down”. That, as we know, ended in grief and with the head honcho being outvoted (first time that happens) in the last policy committee meeting, when the policy rate was lowered by 50 basis points to 0.25%.
ATHENS | By Manos Giakoumis via MacroPolis | The core Greek banks reported first quarter (Q1) results in the last three days of May. The release of the results was the last act in a series of important developments for the Greek banking market over the past two months. These developments constitute the third phase of the new era for Greek banks, which started two years ago.
WASHINGTON | By Pablo Pardo | Criticism to the fine imposed by the United States department of Justice to Credit Suisse have been almost universal. For instance, The New Yorker’s John Cassidy has remarked that Credit Suisse’s CEO, Brady Dougan, has said that “we have found no instances where clients cannot do business with us,” as a proof of the lack of impact of the $2.5 bn. (EUR1.9 bn.) fine.
MADRID | By Fernando Barciela | As the election day approaches, we bring you a series of special interviews focused on economic perspectives for the EU citizens and companies. Today we focus on the telecom sector, which is experiencing a deep transformation in the continent. Former chairman of Spanish Telefonica Luis Solana, currently responsible for the company’s entrepreneurship activities, comments on the main challenges ahead, as well as the need of surveillancance over the EU banking and energy sectors, and the inevitable downsizing of the welfare state in the region. Nonetheless, he was a socialist elected MP in Spain for five years during the transition period.
MADRID | By Ana Fuentes | If you haven’t watched it, here’s Deutsche Bank’s co-head of corporate banking and securities Colin Fan scolding City traders and trying to convince the world that they’ve done some ménage after the crisis. Remember that the lender paid a €725m penalty to the EU in the Libor scandal; the biggest single fine in a total of €1.7bn charged to six banks.“Being boastful, indiscreet or vulgar is not okay. It will have serious consequences for your career,” Mr Fan warned its staff. Instead of an email, the bank chose the formula of an “internal” video… which went viral just before the German lender started making headlines for its plans of selling €8bn worth of new shares. A plan that is supposed to catapult Deutsche out of the ranks of the worst capitalized banks in Europe -from 9.5 per cent to 11.8 per cent.
MADRID | By J.P. Marín Arrese | The ECB is frantically submitting to scrutiny up to 60% of risk-weighted assets from the 128 biggest banks in Europe. This step stands as its last chance to avoid inheriting former shortcomings and mismatches. When it takes over responsibility for supervision later on this year, it will be blamed for any financial blunder. No wonder it wants to ensure that no nasty surprise lies ahead.
WASHINGTON | Via The Next New Deal | Roosevelt Institute Fellow Mike Konczal (@rorytomb) explains why banks need higher capital standards to prevent another collapse, how much could they fund themselves through equity and the challenges ahead the U.S. financial reform such as the Dodd Frank Act’s progress, inequality and CEO pay.
MADRID | By Fernando G. Urbaneja | There is a problem with the European stress tests: they focus on solvency but forget about profitability, which is essential for the future of banks. The system doesn’t work properly and in a context of stagnant economy, banking faces a difficult future.
BERNA | By Le Temps via Presseurop | Now that banking secrecy has come to an end, “Swiss bankers are dreaming of Europe,” says Swiss daily Le Temps.
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | In a recent post John Taylor leans on Bob Hall to criticize NGDP Targeting. He goes: “In his paper at the recent Jackson Hole conference, Bob Hall criticized nominal GDP targeting, citing his 1994 paper with Greg Mankiw. Bob argues that “A policy of stabilizing nominal GDP growth would require contractionary policies to lower inflation when productivity growth is unusually high. Such a policy might easily trigger a spell at the zero lower bound.”