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In Europe 20th June 2014

Swiss watchdog asks UBS and Credit Suisse to rise leveraging ratios

MADRID | By The Corner | Swiss national bank has pointed out that the country’s two big entities UBS and Credit Suisse should reinforce their leveraging ratios in order to increase their protection against eventual risks, including legal disputes. Furthermore, UBS could be fined between €4.9- 7.3 bn after manipulating exchange rates. Credit Suisse has already paid $3.7 bn to settle legal cases in the U.S. over helping Americans evade taxes and the sale of mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

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In Europe 19th June 2014

Amid a deep restructuring process, Spain gets new King

MADRID | By Juan Ballesta | Spain’s new King Felipe VI took the throne on Wednesday night, declaring his commitment to carrying out the transformations needed. The once severely crisis-battered country is finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, seeing his international financing costs going down and growth rate timidly increasing but still fighting with a huge unemployment rate and deficit.

Spanishinvestments

In Europe 18th June 2014

Spanish businessmen are the eurozone’s most investment-friendly

MADRID| By The Corner | Spain is to lead the EU economic recovery until 2018, according to Morgan Stanley. External sector, capital spending and internal demand would be the factors pushing the country’s growth. Regarding capex, Spanish businesses are the most inclined to rise their investment expenditure in manufacturing during year 2014 in order to boost production capacity. 

Germany's toll road

In Europe 18th June 2014

IMF: More German investment to strengthen the EZ

BERLIN | By Alberto Lozano | The ECB and ‘peripheral’ countries cannot do all the work by themselves. The eurozone needs to move away from deflation and to emerge definitely from recession with a sustainable growth. As the International Monetary Fund recently concluded about Germany, the EU biggest economy could “strengthen its role as an anchor of regional stability.” But could more investment in Germany have a real impact in their neighbour’s economies?

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In Europe 18th June 2014

TLTRO: An X-Ray

MADRID | By Carlos Díaz Güell | Last week’s greatest news for SMEs were the Targeted Long Term Refinancing Operations (TLTRO), variety of LTROs that got a T standing for target. Banks will be allowed to borrow money at 0.25% interest rate at 4 years max.

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In Europe 17th June 2014

Germany is already being paid for borrowing

MADRID | By Bankinter analysts | Bundesbank’s monthly bulletin points that the German economy might slow down in the 2Q14, but that it would be reactivated in the 3Q14 thanks to the construction industry and the improvement of the confidence amongst households. Thus, the central bank raised its forecast for 2014 from 1.7% to 1.9%. In this context, Germany sold €1,511 million in 6-month bills with a negative interest rate: -0.0015%. Last May, the same bills were sold at +0.1089%, so we may conclude that the ECB’s negative deposit rate also helps the German debt.

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In Europe 17th June 2014

Greece: Majority of services sectors still see contraction in turnover in Q1 2014

ATHENS | Via Macropolis | The evolution of turnover indices for the services sector showed 8 out of the 14 services activities posted a contraction in Q1 2014, according to the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT). The highest drop was recorded in architectural and engineering activities (down 27.2 percent), cleaning activities (down 17.2 percent) and advertising and market research (down 13.3 percent).

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In Europe 16th June 2014

Durao Barroso points to Bank of Spain’s “serious mistakes” in supervising crisis

SANTANDER | By Ana Fuentes | European Commission President José Manuel Durao Barroso chose his last days in the job to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. Surprising many by his candor, he directly accused the Bank of Spain of making “important mistakes” supervising the financial sector. “It was not the EU nor Ms Merkel who originated the crisis,” he said.