LONDON | The dramatic meltdown of confidence in the euro zone’s economic performance left the European fund industry suffering almost €70 billion in flows out of equity funds in 2011. Data colected by Morningstar European funds show that over €119 billion were extracted from long-term funds last year, and although money market funds still saw strong inflows in December, with €4.4 billion, flows to short-term funds were negative for the last…
By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | The great cause of the financial crisis was the spreading of risk through previously unknown channels. New financial instruments were invented, ‘collateralized’ with original assets and loans (mortgages), and sold and resold to re-lend the proceeds of the sale. The standardization of the process, despite its darkness, made it easier to hide the risk to the rest of the world. The initial risk was…
By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | Spain’s bill auction on Tuesday has been another success for the sixth time in a row. This time, the Spanish Treasury has placed €2,506.8mn in Treasury bills at 3 and 6 months and so, beats its target of €2,500mn. The yields have fallen almost half a point compared to December’s results. Specifically, the Treasury has sold €1.43bn of the €6.053,85mn demanded by investors in…
The press all over the world is debating the repercussions of the imminent agreement between Greece –and the EU– and the International Institute for Finance (IIF), chaired by Charles Dallara and which holds $206 billion of the the total $350bn of Greek sovereign bonds (the ECB has another $60bn). According to the Financial Times, the agreement would require a haircut of 68% but what seems to be the most difficult to issue…
All obvious events are treacherous animals: take for instance the understandable fact that publicly traded companies do their best for each earnings season to appear and sound as joyous as investors would have dreamt. The new accounting system of 2007, primarily based on international standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), raises target information to the category of the golden calf of the accounting rules. Among these parameters, professors Leandro…
By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | The markets are looking very closely at Greece after the negotiations for the bailout froze due to issues involving the private sector participation. The press is now speculating over a possible 68% haircut to bear by creditors as reported in the Financial Times on Wednesday. As Nordkapp analysts explain this is the road toward a deleveraging frame “upon which the solutions to the European…
By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | The rating agencies never rest, much less when they talk about those countries suffering the most. Specifically, Fitch and S&P have been looking at Spain. The first has warned that it will probably downgrade Spain’s solvency rating by one or two notches by the end of January. According to Fitch, and even though its analysts admit the good will of the new government’s fiscal…
By Alfredo Aranda, in Madrid | The course of the euro seems to be clearly bearish, according to some analysts. However, in contrast with previous situations, the depreciation of the single currency is more the result of the actions of the ECB than due to traditional factors such as monetary or economic policies. According to Alberto Matellán, the liquidity injection carried out by both the Fed and the ECB are directly…