Top court blocks Merkel plan to fast-track bailout February 29, 2012 GERMANY’S efforts to set up a parliamentary committee to approve urgent action by the Eurozone bailout fund have been deemed “in large part” unconstitutional by the county’s top court, hampering efforts to ensure failing states can be rescued. The European Central Bank (ECB) stopped accepting Greek government debt as collateral after Standard and Poor’s put [...]
IS THE WORST NOW OVER FOR ITALY AND SPAIN? February 29, 2012 ZACH RIVERS | BUSINESS MONITOR INTERNATIONAL “Not yet – it’s going to take a while. They will pull through but I don’t think we’ll be out of this European trouble for at least three years. Can Sarkozy and Merkel force creditors to take a hit? They’re still faffing around.” CHRIS ARD | IRISH BANK RESOLUTION [...]
Italian debt costs drop on new demand February 29, 2012 THE ITALIAN government’s borrowing costs fell to a six-month low yesterday, as investors grew more confident the country’s economy is moving in the right direction. Support from the European Central Bank’s (ECB) long-term refinancing operation (LTRO) has also helped, increasing Europe’s banks’ liquidity and reducing fears that Italy’s banks are about to collapse. Italy sold [...]
Low rates contributed to credit bubble, says Tucker February 29, 2012 EASY oney contributed to the huge credit bubble of the early and mid 2000s that eventually led to the financial crisis, a senior Bank of England official said last night. Paul Tucker, the Bank’s deputy governor, also said that he and his colleagues must stand ready to bring interest rates back to normal levels. “We [...]
Portugal set to receive next bailout tranche February 29, 2012 PORTUGAL passed the third review by the EU and International Monetary Fund (IMF) of its €78bn (£66bn) bailout programme yesterday, and the country’s finance minister said it would not need a second rescue like Greece. But the lenders warned that Portugal’s economic slump will deepen this year, and urged more reforms. Inspectors recommended the bailout’s [...]
Irish Life raises loan hit forecast February 29, 2012 IRISH Life and Permanent said it trebled its loan impairment provisions to €1.4bn last year, blaming the poor state of the Irish property market. The bank said it now thinks house prices fell 55 per cent from peak to trough, worse than its earlier estimate of 43 per cent. And a “significant increase” of mortgages [...]
Lawyers slam retrospective Barclays tax February 29, 2012 LAWYERS yesterday railed against the retrospective £100m tax bill handed to Barclays bank by HMRC this week, saying it could set a worrying precedent. Barclays faces paying over £100m to the Treasury after the government changed the law to close a tax loophole. The bank was allegedly exploiting a rule that says profit arising from [...]
Santander to take control of Kredyt Bank in Poland February 29, 2012 THE Eurozone’s biggest bank Santander is doubling its bet on Poland, Europe’s most resilient economy, by taking over a unit of Belgian lender KBC to create a business worth about €5bn (£4.24bn). Spain’s Santander will combine KBC’s Kredyt Bank with Bank Zachodni WBK to turn the unit it bought just last year into Poland’s number [...]
Lloyds gets the most complaints February 29, 2012 PART-NATIONALISED bank Lloyds received the most complaints among UK financial firms in the second-half of last year, data from the Financial Ombudsman showed yesterday. The Ombudsman said the various operations within Lloyds Banking Group – including the likes of Bank of Scotland and Halifax – got 20,310 complaints from July to December last year. Barclays [...]
Deutsche set for €2bn asset deal February 29, 2012 DEUTSCHE Bank has said it is talking exclusively to privately held US financial services firm Guggenheim Partners over the sale of a big chunk of its asset management businesses. Germany’s biggest lender declined to give financial details but it is expected to raise between €1.5bn (£1.27bn) and €2bn from the deal. The businesses up for [...]
