First Republic’s share price jumps nearly 50 per cent after Yellen indicates more protection for depositors March 21, 2023 First Republic Bank’s future looked increasingly secure on Tuesday as the possibility of further government support sparked a dramatic share price revival. Speaking to the American Bankers Association, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen indicated that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) could step in to guarantee all deposits, as it did with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), [...]
Moody’s follows S&P in UBS ratings downgrade as concerns grow over Credit Suisse deal March 21, 2023 Moody’s downgraded the outlook on UBS today, following a similar move by S&P over the weekend, after the Swiss banking giant’s acquisition of Credit Suisse. The ratings agency said “the transaction poses significant financial, cultural and franchise related integration challenges” to UBS. These challenges included the difficulty of maintaining key members of staff, the need [...]
Why pension funds might not be to blame for the UK’s capital market decline March 21, 2023 Pension funds have taken on an interesting new role in the City psyche over the past year. Once just guardians of the country’s retirement cash, they have morphed into punch bags on which to unleash frustration at the UK’s capital market decline. A sort of anti-growth coalition unwilling to back home-reared equities and believe in [...]
Summertime sadness: 2022 heatwave leaves insurers with £219bn subsidence bill March 21, 2023 Insurers are set to pay out £219m to Brits whose houses sunk into the ground due to the heatwave last year, new figures from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) show. The summer heatwave, which saw temperatures in the Lincolnshire town on Coningsby hit record highs of 40.3 degrees Celsius, led to a surge in [...]
Credit Suisse and Silicon Valley Bank chaos are symptoms of fragile banking system March 21, 2023 City folk around in 2007 must have been getting very twitchy over the last week. Some of the market moves were reminiscent of the early stages of the financial crisis once people clocked on to just how bad banks had messed up. Credit Suisse tumbled more than 30 per cent at one point. Its peers [...]
Banks recover morning losses as markets digest Credit Suisse-UBS merger March 20, 2023 Shares in UBS were trading over 5 per cent down around midday on Monday, having traded nearly 10 per cent lower earlier in the day, after it completed its emergency acquisition of Credit Suisse over the weekend. Although many European banks were trading lower in the morning, most had recovered some of their losses shortly [...]
First Silicon Valley Bank, then Credit Suisse, and now Signature Bank is bought out for £2.2bn March 20, 2023 New York Community Bank has agreed to buy a significant chunk of the failed Signature Bank in a 2.7 billion dollar (£2.2 billion) deal, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) said late on Sunday. The 40 branches of Signature Bank will become Flagstar Bank, starting on Monday. This comes after UBS agreed to purchase beleaguered [...]
Explainer: What’s an AT1 bond – and why are Credit Suisse’s now worthless? March 20, 2023 UBS’ rescue deal of Credit Suisse, which will see it buy its stricken Zurich rival at a discount £3bn price, has come with a surprise for holders of Credit Suisse’s AT1 bonds. These risky bonds – which had a nominal value of $17bn – are now precisely worthless. Unsurprisingly, holders of the bonds are less [...]
Hong Kong and Tokyo: Why Asian markets declined after Credit Suisse’ takeover March 20, 2023 Asian stock markets fell on Monday after Swiss authorities arranged the takeover of troubled Credit Suisse amid fears of a global banking crisis. Ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting to decide on more possible interest rate hikes, markets in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Sydney declined. While in Shanghai, stocks edged up. Oil prices also retreated. [...]
Fed set to hike rates by 25 basis points despite turmoil in US banking sector March 20, 2023 The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates for the ninth time in a row later this week despite widespread instability in the US banking sector. According to Fedwatch there is a 62 per cent chance that the Fed will opt for a 25 basis point hike and 38 per cent chance that it [...]