Chinese Banks Saw Value of Bad Loans Rise Last Year, Annual Reports Show
BEIJING | By Wu Hongyuran via Caixin | Executive at large bank says figure may have increased by another 60 billion yuan over the first two months of the year.
Markets
Today’s market chatter in Spain
MADRID | By Jaime Santisteban | What’s happening with the tech bubble and why it’s spreading to other sectors; the future of renewable energies and how cuts will harm utilities and much more. Oh, and Greece could be back in the bonds market this week…
Roaming fares and air traffic capture Friday’s market chatter
MADRID | By Jaime Santisteban | European Parliament could eliminate roaming mobile phones rates as of December 2015. Although they’ve been reduced in the last years, it still means 2 % of Telefónica Group income. ACF foresees an impact worth 4 % in the company’s EBITDA.
IAG released March air traffic figures which were under target but keep the recent trend. Demand grows (+10.2 % vs March 2013) for the second straight months. Iberia lost -5.1 % compared to February whereas Vueling (+21%) and British Airways (+3.2%) improved. RENTA4 expects no impact on IAG share price.
Market chatter: ECB’s talking yet non acting
MADRID | By Jaime Santisteban | “The IMF nor politicians will have influence on the ECB as long as Mr. Draghi is running it” Link’s chief analyst J.J. Figares points out. As expected, the monetary authority announced on Thursday that it will stand still in spite of deflation tensions, maintaining interest rates at an all-time-minimum 0.25 % and choosing not to use the little ammunition it has left. However, Mr. Draghi left the door open for stimulus if needed.
China: shadow finance for the masses
Iris Mir | Tight control of capital accounts has pushed China to a financial deadlock. Chinese savers are looking to new online investment platforms amid a lack of substantial wealth management options. Last year China’s Internet payment platform launched the online investment platform Yu’e Bao to offer its users the possibility of investing the idle money on their Alipay accounts and getting much higher benefits than any traditional bank. More than 43.03 million people already enjoy its advantageous financial products. The opportunities of this business model are huge and many other Chinese internet giants are following suit.
Today’s market chatter in Spain
MADRID | By Jaime Santisteban | Market makers woke up with a torrent of data explaining how first quarter played out: Spanish public deficit, Eurozone’s activity indicators, and many more.
FCC’s refinancing deal captures Spain’s market chatter today
MADRID | By Jaime Santisteban | Spanish builder and services firm FCC wrapped up a debt refinancing agreement worth €4.5bn with 99 % of creditor banks, which could turn debt into corporate capital. Market makers like ACF find the move possitive but warn that this move would increase debt average cost.
Stress tests: the quality of its judgment
ANIMAL SPIRITS IN WASHINGTON | By Pablo Pardo | Throughout the last two years, bank regulators have identified a number of increasingly exotic assets in the already-full-of-exotic assets banks’ portfolios. For instance, some institutions are accumulating massive amounts of Credit Default Swaps (CDS). At a time when debt spreads are not just falling, but crashing, what is the logic to hedge in such manner? The short answer is: stress tests.
Market chatter: goodbye to a quite unsettling quarter
MADRID | By Jaime Santisteban | Today we close a rather complicated quarter. Beyond 10-year Spanish bonds, this term turned out a little unnerving with Ukraine’s crisis, fears of deleveraging in China and Fed’s “hawkish” messages. J.P. MORGAN downgraded 1Q14 global growth prediction from 3 % to 2.3 % and now reduces US’s from 2 % to 1.5 %. Harsh weather may have affected the GDP by up to 1 %.
A return to capital markets for Greek banks but no return to domestic lending
ATHENS | By Jens Bastian via Macropolis | In the future we may look back on the past two weeks as a watershed moment for Greek banks following the onset of the twin financial and sovereign debt crisis in 2009. After extensive and well prepared international road shows, financial institutions in Athens attracted unprecedented levels of foreign investors’ interest for bond placements and capital-raising initiatives.