Markets

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Spanish banks wonder: what Italian domino effect?

Spain’s banking sector rejected with some simple data at hand the domino-effect buzz renewed after Italian sovereign bonds were hit on Tuesday by a Standard&Poor’s downgrade. In fact, the only Spanish banks with Italian debt are BBVA and La Caixa. This comment comes from Ahorro Corporación Financiera analysts in Madrid: “In the early hours of the morning, ratings agency S&P reduced the rating of Italy’s sovereign debt from A +…


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Santander: "EU banking stress tests will consider default scenarios with haircuts in trading and maturity portfolios"

Banco Santander analysts today chose a discouraging headline for the Ecofin event hosted last week in Eastern European territory: “Little progress in the Ecofin summit in Poland. It was not possible to release the next tranche of the loan to Greece, nor there was any progress regarding the EFSF, nor was the Finnish collateral difficulties unblocked. In fact, it seems that everything will be delayed until at least October.” The…


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Santander: “EU banking stress tests will consider default scenarios with haircuts in trading and maturity portfolios”

Banco Santander analysts today chose a discouraging headline for the Ecofin event hosted last week in Eastern European territory: “Little progress in the Ecofin summit in Poland. It was not possible to release the next tranche of the loan to Greece, nor there was any progress regarding the EFSF, nor was the Finnish collateral difficulties unblocked. In fact, it seems that everything will be delayed until at least October.” The…


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The EC proposes to reduce to 3.5% the EFSF's rate for Ireland and Portugal

The EC proposes to reduce to 3.5% the rate applied by the EFSF to Ireland and Portugal, now at 6.5% and 5.5% respectively, and Madrid’s financial City welcomes the idea. For Banco Santander, “The European Commission yesterday proposed reducing to 3.5% the interest rate charged by the EFSF to Ireland (currently over 6.5%) and Portugal (5.5%), and extend the debt maturities to 30 years. This proposal is the result of…


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The EC proposes to reduce to 3.5% the EFSF’s rate for Ireland and Portugal

The EC proposes to reduce to 3.5% the rate applied by the EFSF to Ireland and Portugal, now at 6.5% and 5.5% respectively, and Madrid’s financial City welcomes the idea. For Banco Santander, “The European Commission yesterday proposed reducing to 3.5% the interest rate charged by the EFSF to Ireland (currently over 6.5%) and Portugal (5.5%), and extend the debt maturities to 30 years. This proposal is the result of…


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Two analyst notes, one worrisome story

According to ACF, the total amount of debt purchased by the ECB has doubled since the beginning of August. “The ECB increased purchases of sovereign debt during the last week up to €13.960bn. This is comparing to the previous week’s €13.300bn. The total amount of debt purchased by the ECB has almost doubled in the last five weeks. Since the purchasing program began in May 2010 up until last August…


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Time to charge against Basel III, says Mr Dimon

NEW YORK | Financial Times’s interview with Jamie Dimon was intended to create momentum. JP Morgan’s chief executive is now attacking new banking rules by Basel committee, trying to convince against the new regulation to water down Basel III the same way the major US banks have lobbied in Washington to water down Dodd-Frank Act, Obama’s new set of rules after the financial crisis. Dimon’s argument goes like this: the Basel…


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"Troika to return to Greece to sort out the €1.7bn gap in public finances"

Bankinter analysts, in Madrid | This week is to be decisive for Greece. The technical team of the so-called troika of creditors (the IMF, European Union and European Central Bank) will return next Wednesday to Athens to see if the Greek government can clarify the figures it failed to make clear the previous week (this is why the troika left abruptly) and on Saturday, the euro group is meeting probably to…


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“Troika to return to Greece to sort out the €1.7bn gap in public finances”

Bankinter analysts, in Madrid | This week is to be decisive for Greece. The technical team of the so-called troika of creditors (the IMF, European Union and European Central Bank) will return next Wednesday to Athens to see if the Greek government can clarify the figures it failed to make clear the previous week (this is why the troika left abruptly) and on Saturday, the euro group is meeting probably to…


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World left tweeting after a stark resignation

LONDON | For the European Central Bank (ECB), Mr Juergen Stark’s resignation from its executive board on Friday was a “personal” matter, and judging by the reaction on the markets that description turned out to be fitting: at 4:00 pm, the euro was trading against $1.37, down 1.6% and at its lowest level since the end of February. “No wonder,” as international financial markets, HF expert and Webster Finance Professor Jacob…