MADRID | By Julia Pastor | The first TLTRO auction will not make history for its significance. Eurozone banks only asked for €82.6 billion, from which €14.147 million will go to Spanish entities (Santander €3bn; Caixabank €3bn; Popular 2.847 bn ; Bankia 2.7bn and BBVA 2.6bn), much less than the expected 100-150 billion, was firstly interpreted as a poor credit demand, although a second reading shows that lenders were right to be cautions.
MADRID | By Julia Pastor | As expected, ECB’s September TLTRO will not make big headlines. 255 European banks borrowed €82.6bn of liquidity below consensus estimate of €100-150bn. Although the Frankfurt-based institution doesn’t provide a geographical breakdown, banks in Italy and Spain were among the leading borrowers (40% of the total) to trim funding costs. Spanish entities are thought to have asked half of those €30bn at their disposal, although some entities “are not willing to disclose how much they asked for,” an ECB source confirmed to The Corner.
MADRID | The Corner | In the next few days demand for Spanish bonds is expected to grow, since Spanish debt auctions will be held and European CPI data showing that prices remain very low will be released.
MIAMI | By Pablo Pardo | The director of the IMF’s Department of Financial and Monetary Affairs, José Viñals, has declared himself “worried” about “the optimism of the financial markets.” Viñals made his remarks at the LSE Global Pensions Program, organized by the London School of Economics, Santander Asset Management and Novaster. To an audience of around one hundred pension fund managers and regulators, most of them from Latin America, the IMF official remarked that “everybody investing” in what he called “heterogeneous assets” has “made money” this year, in spite of the fact that the “economic news, ‘surprises’ have been relatively bad.”
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes via Historinhas | David Beckworth has a very good article “Inflation Targeting – A monetary regime whose time has come and gone.” A very short summary of the argument is given here: “What, then, would characterize a robust monetary-policy regime? Based on the discussion above, it would be one that does not respond to supply shocks, but does vigorously respond to demand shocks.
MADRID | By J.P. Marín Arrese | The troubles faced by Banco Espirito Santo ’s main share holding group have delivered a widespread blow to financials and periphery sovereigns. A nasty reminder that Eurozone doesn’t seem so stable as everyone bet it was. Investors are flying to safety, pushing the US Treasuries and German bunds close to past records. Stock exchanges and market sentiment are bound to undertake brisk U turns, at no warning. The more so as sharp and continued rises always offer a good excuse for a sell-off. There is nothing to worry about.
MADRID | By Francisco López | Investors are closely looking economists’ forecasts about the next rate hike in the United States. Until recently, the vast majority opted for movements in the second part of 2015. Now, after the last job creation data, some analysts believe that the rise could come as early as 1Q15.
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes via Historinhas | The depression may not be “Great”, but it has certainly been “Prolonged”. And like many things, good or bad, that persist, people “get used” to it! And there are those, like the BIS, who think that deepening the depression is worth it if it means reducing the risk of another financial crisis! The world´s major central banks have certainly caused a lot of damage by tightening money in the face of imaginary inflation dangers, but at least they are shrugging off the BIS “recommendations”.
MADRID | The Corner | While the US Federal Reserve may wind back its asset purchases by a further $US10 billion at the end of July, the ECB is ready to launch the first two TLTROs on 18 September and 11 December 2014, with settlement six days later.
WASHINGTON | By Pablo Pardo | The Monty Python are back in London, and one of their most famous sketches revolves around the phrase “nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.” The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) is like the Spanish Inquisition, only less funny and more predictable than the British surreal comedy group: it is the bearer of orthodoxy, even if it means sending everybody to the stake. Its prescriptions are suicidal in economic terms, wrong from a moral point of view, and unjust from a societal perspective.