Greece: Banks and Pols at Impasse

The debate over how to divide the costs of rescuing Greece is one of the central questions European officials hope to resolve at a weekend summit that comes almost two years to the day after a newly elected government in Athens admitted that the country’s finances were “off the rails.”

……On Wednesday evening, an unexpected gathering of top European officials and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde in Frankfurt failed to bridge a divide between Germany, which is footing much of Greek’s bill and supports larger private-sector losses, and France, which is more concerned about the impact of greater losses on its banks.

via Greece: Banks and Pols at Impasse.

My money is on Germany — and a bigger haircut for banks. Then the next headache is how to recapitalize the banks. The cause of the problem: Basel II allowed 50:1 leverage on government (including Greek) bonds.

The Bankers’ Capital War – Howard Davies – Project Syndicate

Basel 3, the Basel Committee’s new global regulatory standard on banks’ capital adequacy and liquidity, will more or less double the equity requirements, and will impose extra costs on banks deemed “too big to fail.” The Committee’s analysis of the economic consequences found that the impact on growth would be modest, perhaps reducing GDP by 0.33% after five years – easily within the margin of forecast error. The OECD took a different view, putting the growth impact at about twice that level, and rather higher in Europe, where companies rely far more on bank financing than they do in the US.

In sharp contrast, the Institute of International Finance, the leading trade association for the world’s top banks, believes that the impact of higher capital requirements could be far stronger. The IIF believes that GDP could be fully 5% lower after five years, with unemployment more than 7% higher.

The IIF’s forecast may seem alarmist, but the competing estimates are based on some intriguing analytical differences. Regulators take the view that the impact of higher capital requirements on the cost of credit to borrowers will be modest, as the overall cost of funds to banks will not rise much. They rest their case on the famous Modigliani-Miller theorem, which implies that a company cannot alter its capital cost by changing the balance between equity and debt on its balance sheet. If there is more equity, then logically debt should be cheaper, as the company (or bank) is better insulated from default.

Bankers accept that, in the long run, the theorem might hold, but argue that it will take time, especially given recent events, to persuade investors that banks are genuinely safer….

via The Bankers’ Capital War – Howard Davies – Project Syndicate.

A leveraged EFSF is pure poison – Telegraph Blogs

If Europe’s leaders do indeed leverage their €440bn bail-out fund (EFSF) to €2 trillion or €3 trillion through some form of “first loss” insurance on Club Med bonds – as markets now seem to assume – the consequences will be swift and brutal.

Professor Ansgar Belke, from Berlin’s DIW Institute, said any leveraging of the EFSF would be “poisonous” for France’s AAA rating and would set off an uncontrollable chain of events.

“It counteracts all efforts made so far to stabilize the eurozone debt crisis, which are premised on the AAA rating of a sufficiently large number of strong economies. In extremis, it would probably cause the break-up of the eurozone”, he told Handlesblatt.

…..Dr Belke said France is already under pressure. BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole may need €20bn in fresh capital, with knock-on risk for the French state. He warned that France’s public debt (Now 82pc of GDP) would shoot up to 90pc of GDP if the debt crisis rumbles on. Variants of this theme were picked up by other German economists in a Handelsblatt forum.

via A leveraged EFSF is pure poison – Telegraph Blogs.

The Next Shoes to Drop | Steve Saville | Safehaven.com

China is experiencing an “Austrian” boom-bust cycle writ large, with the boom phase possibly nearing its demise. The extent of mal-investment is unprecedented in modern times. The most obvious signs of this mal-investment are new cities with almost no inhabitants and massive newly-constructed shopping malls with almost no tenanted shops, but the problem runs much deeper than the unoccupied buildings. The core of the problem is that the banking industry is completely dedicated to serving the State, and as a consequence a lot of bank lending is done with total disregard for economics.

Considering that most analysts and investors believe that China is making rapid REAL economic progress and that China’s economy will continue to strengthen, one of the next shoes to drop could be the general realisation that China’s economy is structurally unsound.

via The Next Shoes to Drop | Steve Saville | Safehaven.com.

China buys its banks – macrobusiness.com.au

Central Huijin Investment Ltd, an arm of China’s sovereign wealth fund, bought shares in four major Chinese State-owned banks on the secondary market on Monday, the company told Xinhua.

The four banks include the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), Bank of China (BOC) and China Construction Bank (CCB), according to the company.

The move is aimed at supporting the steady operation and development of major financial institutions and stabilizing their stock prices, the company said.

via China buys its banks – macrobusiness.com.au | macrobusiness.com.au.

Could be the first step in a bailout.

How did Europe’s bank stress tests give Dexia a clean bill of health? | Business | guardian.co.uk

It may seem like a lifetime away, but it is only in July that the European Banking Authority published the result of “stress tests” on 90 banks across 21 countries in the EU, covering around 65% of the banking industry.

Eight failed. Sixteen were border line with core tier one capital ratios – a key measure of financial strength – of between 5% and 6%.

So presumably, Dexia, the Franco-Belgian bank on which markets are currently fixated, was in one of the danger-zone categories?

Well no. Its statement issued on the day proclaimed “no need for Dexia to raise additional capital”.

…….The tests have proved to be meaningless even quicker than they were in 2010 when Ireland’s banks were given a clean bill of health, only to be bailed out four months later. In July, 2011 the EBA had been reckoning that the capital shortfall of the banks that failed was just €2.5bn. Now the markets reckon that the hole is more like €300bn.

via How did Europe’s bank stress tests give Dexia a clean bill of health? | Business | guardian.co.uk.

Follow the Money: Behind Europe’s Debt Crisis Lurks Another Giant Bailout of Wall Street

A Greek (or Irish or Spanish or Italian or Portuguese) default would have roughly the same effect on our financial system as the implosion of Lehman Brothers in 2008. Financial chaos.

….The Street has lent only about $7 billion to Greece, as of the end of last year, according to the Bank for International Settlements. That’s no big deal.

But a default by Greece or any other of Europe’s debt-burdened nations could easily pummel German and French banks, which have lent Greece (and the other wobbly European countries) far more.

That’s where Wall Street comes in. Big Wall Street banks have lent German and French banks a bundle.

via Follow the Money: Behind Europe’s Debt Crisis Lurks Another Giant Bailout of Wall Street – Robert Reich.

China’s Big Four banks reportedly see big outflows – MarketWatch

China’s four biggest banks are seeing a big outflow of deposits…….. a large portion of the CNY420 billion of deposits may have flowed to the high-yielding private lending markets, which have grown rapidly in recent months due to the strong borrowing demand from small businesses…….Borrowing rates in the private lending markets are typically 10 times the benchmark deposit rates, the report said. China’s one-year benchmark deposit rate stands at 3.5% now.

via China’s Big Four banks reportedly see big outflows – MarketWatch.

…A sign that monetary tightening is starting to bite.