MADRID | By Luis Martí | The European banking union project received a remarkable boost last December, even if a major chapter, the bank resolution fund, had to conform to German requirements and stay on a national basis. This part of the agreement is a moot point, and Southern countries should have raised their voices and taken a firm stand against, as Münchau also wrote, no matter the delay inflicted to the working agenda of the eurogroup.
BERNA | By Le Temps via Presseurop | Now that banking secrecy has come to an end, “Swiss bankers are dreaming of Europe,” says Swiss daily Le Temps.
FRANKFORT | Der Standard via Presseurop | Major European banks are paying dearly for their alleged participation in the manipulation of interest and exchange rates.
MADRID | By JP Marin Arrese | Draghi’s acid comment that a number of banks had to fail the forthcoming ECB asset quality and stress tests to ensure their credibility, sounded like a warning on his resoluteness to undertake an unsparing check before taking over full supervisory powers. His scaremongering statement has being judged as wholly inappropriate for a central banker. A position he is well acquainted with.
LONDON | By Victor Jimenez | In the sector regulators’ agenda, European banks will indeed need more capital to protect the public purse from the fallouts of the risks that entities take on.
MADRID | By Francisco López | In spite of the frequent denials coming from Madrid, though, using that cash–officially it isn’t called a banking rescue but “financial assistance in favourable conditions”–would be a clever thing to do.
The news of Spanish banks reducing ECB credit use fits within the more attractive frame European banks sit now in. Stock returns have outdone market average by 44 percent since July 2012.
NEW YORK | While European companies and banks try to forget this annus horribilis, some US financial firms are rubbing their hands: under pressure from regulators, Europeans will have to shed up to $3 trillion in assets over the next 18 months, according to Morgan Stanley. Market dislocation on this side of the Atlantic means also a great occasion for American companies to go shopping. This month the German Commerzbank…
By Miguel Navascués, in Madrid | There has always been tension between the IMF and those countries under its analysis over the numbers in the fund’s economic forecasts. But this time the battle between the IMF’s Ms Lagarde and the European authorities has been set over valuations of sovereign bonds held by the banks. According to Lagarde, were the bonds in the European banks’ portfolios to be valued at their current market price……