NEW YORK | Have Libor scandal shock waves reached this side of the Atlantic yet? There is no doubt they will. It may impact American consumers and the U.S. financial system: Barclays is the only bank confessing malpractices so far, although Wall Street has almost surely been involved in the same dynamics. So far we've [...]
Euro stress-free area
By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | After so many fruitless meetings, conversations and rounds nobody expected that the European leaders would be able to reach a more than reasonable agreement for Europe, that tough Germany would relax its position towards its Southern partners, and Spain and Italy would resist before the steam engine of the [...]
The consequences of the U.S. banks downgrade
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 [...]
"Confidence in Spain's banks will improve"
home loan with bad credit rating By www.valenciaplaza.com | Citigroup strategist José Luis MartÃnez believes the importance of the delay in the Spanish request for capital to bailout the country's banking sector has been overblown by commentators. MartÃnez, though, worries about the cost of the short-term credit for Spain. To what extent the results of [...]
What a kerfuffle over that €100-billion Spanish banks’ bailout
By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | The results of those independent audits over the Spanish banking sector have come to be summarised in one line, that banks would need up to €62 billion if the economy took a turn for the worst. Now, the published opinion in the country is terribly divided, as it was [...]
Bailout for Spain's banks sets €38-billion safety margin even in worse scenario
MADRID | Estimates from consultants Oliver Wyman and Roland Berger show Spanish banks would need capital up to a maximum figure of €62 billion to offset a stressed scenario. The results of  the €2-million independent evaluation of the sector were reported in a joint press conference by the deputy governor of the Bank of Spain Fernando [...]
E pericoloso sporgersi
MADRID | Any train traveller knows by heart the stern warning on the danger that lies in leaning out. Italians seem to pay due attention to this caution, living permanently in a risky environment. Downplaying their own problems has led them to slip to second line positions leaving Spaniards as forerunners of the raging euro [...]
Let's escape the wreck and keep sailing
MADRID | “It is time to resort to the International Monetary Fund or the European rescue fund,” wrote in the January edition of Revista Consejeros Aristóbulo de Juan, former Bank of Spain's director general of inspection. Even Banco Santander's chairman Emilio BotÃn, who's always shown his antipathy to salvage competitors with his money or the [...]
Italian banks face problematic funding for up to €42 billion in capital needs
By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | The Italian banking system is, too, in the spotlight. Experts at Morgan Stanley consider that the problems of the Italian banking sector are not comparable to the Spanish banking, although there are important risks to take into account. These analysts recommend taking a cautious stand if there isn’t a [...]
JP Morgan answers your Spanish €100-billion bailout questions
Analysts at JP Morgan released Wednesday an 11-point note with the main questions triggered by the ongoing partial rescue plan to support capital needs of the Spanish banking sector. We are passing them on to you, but we think 8 is particularly interesting as it means Spanish taxpayers are pushed to the front line, and 11 [...]
