LONDON | Whether it is electoral incentives or sincere concern what compelled the UK government to call for supervision from outside the banking sector, free market advocates must have felt an acute sense of betrayal. On Tuesday, the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne no only reminded the City that the British Bankers Association members will not see a penny of the £290-million fine that has been imposed to Barclays…
MADRID | Barclays analysts said in an investor note on Monday that further worsening in Spain’s case should be very limited, as government policies tackle the key problems with the right solutions, in spite of mistakes being made. Experts remained confident the financial sector has gained sufficient funding at least until 2015 after having taken advantage of the latest liquidity operation carried out by the European Central Bank. The report…
By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | The British prime minister David Cameron may perform his isolationist act as theatrically as he likes, but facts are stubborn showing that the British banking sector very much prefers to take advantage of the European Central Bank help when available. Barclays, one of the British banking sector’s heavyweights, has confirmed that its order in the last ECB liquidity operation with a three years maturity…
Many in the euro zone would be happy seeing this Barclays forecast becoming true, not the least in its peripheral shores. “We have revised our ECB projection and look for the ECB to lower the main policy rate by 25bp at its meeting on 6 October, and to widen the interest rate ‘corridor’ back to +/-100bp, which would entail lowering the deposit facility rate by 50bp to 0.25%. In turn,…