European banks

Russian invasion of Ukraine has begun as Putin039s tanks roll

European economy 23rd February 2022

European Bank Exposure To Ukraine Manageable But Second-Round Effects Could Be Material

Marco Troiano (Scope Ratings) | At the end of September 2021, the combined exposure of BIS reporting banks to Ukrainian residents stood at USD 13.5bn gross of risk transfers, with French and Austrian banks accounting for about half of the total. This does not pose any credit concerns. Only a handful of European banking groups maintain a meaningful local presence, including Raiffeisen’s Bank Aval, BNP Paribas’ Ukrsibbank, and PKO’s Kredobank. While…

Spanish economy 3rd August 2021

Only Bankinter Exceeds The Average Capital Ratio Of European Banks, 11.2% Compared To 10.2%

Banca March | European banks have passed the stress tests with good marks. In Spain, the ratio is slightly below the average, at 8.95%. Of the four domestic institutions analyzed, only Bankinter with a ratio of 11.2% exceeded the European average. Santander’s ratio was 9.3% and BBVA’s was 8.7%. The worst performance was that of Banco Sabadell with a ratio of 6.5%, ahead only of Italy’s Monte dei Paschi and HSBC.

European economy 17th March 2021

Dividend Reactivation In European Banks, Some Offering Yields Above 10%

Comments on dividends and buybacks for Q4’21 have dominated the publication of banking sector results. Although regulatory restrictions still apply, most banks want to compensate their shareholders for the dividends they did not pay through special dividends and buybacks in Q4’21. This will result in high payouts at the end of the year. So far, dividend futures of December 2021 STOXX Banks EUR Price index are up 55% year- to-date versus the index which is up 12%.

European economy 26th December 2020

European Banks: Becoming More And More Utility-Like

Scope Ratings | The pandemic showed that in times of crisis, politicians, supervisors, and central banks are willing to extend significant help to the banking sector. No major European bank has come close to resolution this year; nor will any in the near future in our view. Credit markets took note. After an initial scare in March, senior spreads tightened close to pre-crisis levels. Our view is that banking is turning into utilities and that the sector is becoming what it should be: boring.

European economy 15th December 2020

Covid-19: The First Real-Life Stress Test For European Banks Since Post-GFC De-Risking

Scope Ratings | European banks have proven resilient in the face of Covid-19. There has been no banking crisis and no bank has come close to resolution. Supportive fiscal, monetary and supervisory policies have offset credit, funding and solvency risks. Most banks entered the crisis with healthy balance sheets. Balancing the stabilisation effect of the expected rebound against asset-quality deterioration, and factoring in business-model adjustments will underpin our rating approach to the EU banking sector next year.

Ibex, Spanish economy 14th December 2020

The Bank Of England Lifts Restrictions: Santander UK May Return To Paying A Dividend

According to the central bank, the lenders will be able to resume payments once their adequate capitalisation has been verified. The Bank of England urges prudence regarding the return of dividends and will maintain some requirements. These include not exceeding 25% of the profits of the last eight quarters, or 0.2% of their risk-weighted assets. Everything points to the ECB lifting its veto on dividends tomorrow.

European economy 13th October 2020

European Banks’s ROE plummets to 0.01% in Q2’20 Vs 6.01% Yr Earlier

Intermoney | The ECB has published devastating data on the Eurozone banks. It revealed a ROE of 0.01% in Q2’20 compared with 6.01% a year earlier; a figure that was negative in the major institutions in 7 of the 19 countries in the euro area. In this context, non-performing loans remained almost stable at €503 Bn, allowing the NPL rate of the large banks in the EMU to fall to 2.94%. This was in a fictious manner, however, as it was thanks to state guarantees and, above all, the moratoriums on loan payments.

European economy 22nd September 2020

European Banks: Six Months Into The Pandemic, A Tougher Spot But No Crisis

The European banking landscape does not look much worse six months into the pandemic-triggered economic crisis than before Covid-19 struck. Loan-loss provisions are higher, there is negative pressure on top-line revenues and gloomy market predictions linger. But the prospect of a new banking crisis is remote. The principal merit goes to the regulatory architecture set up in Europe after the Great Financial Crisis.

European economy 21st September 2020

ECB Temporarily Relaxes Capital Requirements To Weather Covid-19

The European Central Bank has decided to allow the lenders it directly supervises in the region, on a temporary basis until June 27, 2021, to exclude certain exposures to the central bank from their leverage ratio. In this way, the institutions will have more room to incur debt since the ECB will not require more capital for it. In fact the ECB will not take into account the liquidity (cash and deposits) banks hold at the central bank when calculating the leverage ratio (Capital/Assets).

Euro area growth: neither very fast nor particularly slow

European economy 11th September 2020

European Cross-Border Bank Mergers: Less Compelling After The Pandemic Than Before

EU agreement on a pandemic fund boosted market and regulators’ wishes to move towards cross-border consolidation among European banks- the ECB’s vice-president, Luis de Guindos, has already warned of the need for the sector to continue with the merger process. Scenarios have started to be built again about who should be merging with whom. But unity around the EU pandemic fund is not about banks, say analysts at Scope Ratings.

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