Santander Consumer Finance has signed in Hefei, Anhui Province, an agreement with Chinese car manufacturer Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co., Ltd (JAC) to create an independent company to provide auto financing in the Chinese market. Under the accord, Santander Consumer Finance and JAC will each have a 50% stake in the new company and will each name three members to the board of directors. The consumer finance unit of Banco Santander…
MADRID | The president of BBVA, Francisco González, commented at a press conference in Seul during the inauguration of a new branch in the Korean capital, that the worst part of European debt crisis is already over. González’s statement did not go unnoticed in any of the Spanish economic newspapers. “Francisco González pointed out that there would be no problems in the implementation of measures agreed during the meeting of European leaders…
By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | Ratings agency S&P’s threat of downgrading the euro zone and the EFSF has fallen like a ton of bricks among leaders and European institutions. Santander analysts believe, however, that it has also been accepted with a certain degree of realism: “The German Minister of finance, Schäuble, commented that the warning is the best incentive to promote a solution to the crisis and regain the confidence…
New York | Although Lehman Brothers collapsed more than three years ago, its full dissolution depended on settling creditors’ claims worth around $450 billion. On Tuesday, a federal judge paved the way for the now infamous firm to exit Chapter 11 protection. The final phase of the largest and most complex biggest bankruptcy in US history –as the firm defined it– that tipped world economies into chaos, involving 7,000 legal…
Julia Pastor, in Madrid | The European Banking Authority (EBA) this week revised its figures about recapitalisation volumes needed in the EU institutions. Banco Santander analysts say that “speculations about the German banks are circulation. They may have to increase capital by the amount of €9.5bn instead of the €5bn initially estimated by the EBA.” Also, the Santander note reminded us that European banks are still carrying out liability management…
Mariano Aldama of the Royal Bank of Scotland and responsible for capital market origination for financial institutions in Spain and Portugal, has given an interview to the business daily Cinco Días in which he admits that, despite the critical situation of Spain because of excessive financing costs, it is possible to restore market confidence. We offer an excerpt of the interview. How long can the banking system resist without financing itself? The rejection in the markets can not last much longer but first there are pieces of the puzzle that…
By Alfredo Aranda, in Madrid| The proposal to centralise fiscal policies in the euro zone is perhaps the only initiative that has received the almost unanimous agreement of the EMU members, although it remains to be seen how it can be articulated. At Agenbolsa, analyst Paula Hausmann considers that this is a good option to restore confidence in the euro and stabilise shaken bond markets. But the big question remains: will…
According to Patrice Gautry, UBP’s chief economist, we are now at the end of a cycle. The West’s growth rate has kept one step ahead of the spiral of debt that was fuelling it, but now we have reached the end of that road: household and national debt needs to be reduced. “As testified by the frantic talks among leaders, the mounting political and economic threats unequivocally call for higher…