UBS | The Swiss National Bank (SNB) reassessed its monetary stance at its quarterly March meeting today. After the European Central Bank (ECB) a week ago lowered its negative deposit rate for bank reserves by only 10 basis points to -0.40% and the main refinancing rate by 5 basis points to 0.00%, it became clear that the negative interest rate differential disfavouring the franc would not erode significantly.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has allowed Banco Santander to apply its own capital calculation model for its Brazilian subsidiary. The approval arrived seven days after Santander presented its 2015 results, so they don’t reflect the effect of the new measure.
Citi | After the recent events, culminating in the execution of the bench-warrant of former President Lula on February 4 , we have reassessed the probability of our current muddling – through macroeconomic scenario and conjectured alternative scenarios .
Spain’s public debt stood at 1.070 trillion euros in the fourth quarter, 7.562 billion euros more than in the previous one, according to Bank of Spain data. (datos del Banco de España).
Julius Baer Research | Against all odds the US Federal Reserve (Fed) continues to show a bias towards normalising rates. Comforted by stabilising financial conditions and a pickup in inflation, the Fed will try to guide market expectations towards additional rate hikes this year.
Aristóbulo de Juan | This is the huge cost of complacency. You frequently hear Spanish bankers and supervisors repeating a new mantra: “The European banks are worse than ours and their supervision is more lax.” Europe’s oldest bank reveals an NPL ratio of 39%, while Deutsche Bank announces losses of 6.9 billion euros…but can this sort of management be allowed?
Veena Trehan | Obama’s legacy will be scarred if he deviates from focusing on addressing climate change. In August 2015, US President Barack Obama made a memorable trip to the Arctic just months after approving Shell’s drilling off the coast of Alaska. At the time, he said: “Climate change is no longer some far-off problem; it is happening here, it is happening now.”
UBS | President Draghi surprised the market positively, both in terms of the magnitude of some of the expected moves (QE extension in the upper end of the range) and also implementing new measures (acquisition of non-financial IG bonds in its asset purchases, and new targeted TLTRO). For (retail) banks like the Spanish, the balance of ECB’s actions has to be considered as positive, especially if trends seen in the swap market are confirmed in Euribor fixings.
Xing Yun via Caixin | Acknowledge the elephant in the room, but don’t exaggerate its weight. That’s the simple way of expressing Minister of Finance Lou Jiwei’s attitude as a policymaker toward the big risks looming over the global financial system, including China’s US$ 12 trillion economy. He sheds light on G-20 negotiations and the reasoning behind a successful outcome.
UBS | The focus in the Brexit debate is often on the UK’s relatively large current account deficit. This is understandable, as a period in which Foreign Direct Investment was harder for the UK to attract in a post-Brexit world would likely imply the current account would need to correct.