Banca March | European banks passed the stress test results with good marks. In Spain, the ratio is slightly below the average, at 8.95%. Of the four domestic institutions analyzed, only Bankinter exceeded the average capital ratio with 11.2%. Santander had 9.3% and BBVA 8.7%. The worst was Banco Sabadell with a ratio of 6.5%, ahead only of Italy’s Monte dei Paschi and HSBC.
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European Views | In hosting the first-ever Global State of Human Rights conference a couple of weeks ago, the European Parliament clearly signalled that it sees itself at the vanguard of promoting the rule of law, both inside and outside the bloc. Indeed, at the last plenary session alone, the Parliament adopted resolutions on the democratic crisis in Nicaragua, the repression of the opposition in Turkey, Saudi Arabia’s use of the death penalty, press freedom in Hong Kong, political prisoners in Iran, and the rights of Hungary’s LGBT citizens.
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WisdomTree | The Bloomberg Commodity Total Return (BCOM TR) Index posted its third consecutive month of gains in June 2021, capping the quarter with a 13.3% q-o-q gain, the strongest since Q4 2010. Demand for commodities is rising as pandemic era restrictions are being lifted, while bottlenecks are providing supply challenges. Not all commodity sectors performed equally in the reporting month (which ended 16th July), with precious metals sliding 3.6%,…
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Fernando Rodríguez | “Nor do we know what rules the EBA is going to impose on these issues, or how some of the measures the ECB may take will affect capital ratios. So regulation is making it difficult for us to grow, because of all the limitations and all the capital requirements being imposed on us,” explains Ramiro Mato, chairman of the responsible banking, sustainability and corporate governance committee at Santander Bank: “For example, in Poland 70% of energy still comes from coal, and we cannot stop financing our customers all at once.”
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Pablo Pardo (Washington) | Nobuhiro Kiyotaki, Princeton professor and BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award winner, says: “As public debt grows, rates tend to rise, until they are close to those of private debt, which are higher than the rate of GDP growth. The spreads on public and private debt are not immutable over time and, paradoxically, some people seem to think that this is the case, that the coupon on…
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