MADRID | By J.P. Marín Arrese | The summer break has delivered a much needed respite to Spanish banks, yet the forthcoming autumn will bring them a number of hurdles and potential pitfalls. For the author, the most worrying fact is the lack of ambition in performing a much needed restructuring.
LONDON | By Victor Jimenez | In a cautious tone common to other voices heard today in the City, analysts reminded investors that most governments in Europe continue amassing public spending bills worryingly higher than their income.
MADRID | Since the start of the financial crisis in 2008, the Spanish banks have reduced their presence in 7,925 branches or -17.2%, the equivalent of a 53.6% of the whole Eurozone’s banking sector.
VALENCIA | By Luis Torralba, via valenciaplaza | Rosend Ortí, director general at Caixa Popular, one of the very few small saving banks that have survived the financial typhoon in Spain: “The partnership model resists well against the current crisis.”
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | An alternative, which has been proposed by people like Krugman and Blanchard, is for the central bank to increase the inflation target.
VALENCIA | By XTB analysts Miguel A. Rodriguez | Among all the obstacles that the European economies find in their way to recovery there is one particularly intractable: the Eurozone’s central bank itself. The ECB has proved to be too slow, and extremely fearful to display its powers.
LONDON | By Victor Jimenez | What sounds optimistic for Italy and Spain can dampen the picture of Germany as almost unassailable European economic engine. The IMF alerted that the German over-reliance on exports would cut down its growth.
BARCELONA | By CaixaBank research team | The Eurogroup’s agreement contains another crucial point: the possibility of the ESM injecting funds directly into intervened banks and thereby weakening the link between bank risk and sovereign risk.
WASHINGTON | By Pablo Pardo | Basically, the whole compensation system has moved from buying to selling (the performance-based restricted stock). That’s all. The actual difference between the two is indistinguishable.
LONDON | By Victor Jimenez | “The improvement in the PMIs suggest the Eurozone economy should exit recession in the third quarter of this year. But the recovery is likely to remain uneven.”