LONDON | The two possible responses from Chancellor George Osborne and Prime Minister David Cameron are well known: they could either use again the eurozone card as a scapegoat, or face the UK rating downgrade.
From stable to negative. Moody’s new rating for Europe puts the continent on notice and made some European stock markets slip on Tuesday. According to the agency, Germany, France, the UK and the Netherlands could stop fulfilling their obligations to the EU if the crisis worsens. These four countries account for about 45% of the EU’s budget revenue. “The creditworthiness of these member states is highly correlated, as they are…
Moody’s investors service said Thursday it had changed to negative the outlooks of 17 German banking groups and several subsidiaries. The decision affected their long-term debt and deposit ratings or their long-term guaranteed debt obligations, whose ratings incorporate support from the German government or several German federal states or municipalities. Moody’s explained the update of outlooks was the consequence of German sovereign and sub-sovereign ratings having been graded to negative from…
NEW YORK | Last week 15 major banks, including the nation’s three largest institutions, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup, which together have more than $6.4 trillion in assets, suffered credit ratings cuts by Moody’s. No matter their efforts to strengthen their operations since they received a warning in February, their core businesses still present structural weaknesses, the ratings agency said. Bank of America, which owns Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup,…
I Want To Get Back With Him MADRID | An Spanish offensive seems to have been deployed in all fronts. Spain's King Juan Carlos in Brazil called on the European Union to advance its integration because the problem, he said, rather than economic, is political. Meanwhile, president Mariano Rajoy introduced in a Senate session what the Spanish position will be in the next European summit: Europe needs a horizon, make…