Financial Communique » banking

EU could ease the capital requirements for the banks

Viliyana Filipova — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:18:55 +0000

The European banking regulator may consider easing its capital requirements for banks. Later this week in London, the European banking regulator (EBA) will hold a meeting that will review in December announced new capital requirements. The requesting anonymity because of confidentiality of the talks, the meeting will be reviewed in the new higher capital buffers that banks must have on their bond holdings of certain eurozone countries. As part of measures to tackle the debt crisis, EBA asked European banks by the end of June to raise 114.7 billion additional capital. The regulator wants banks to increase their capital adequacy ratio to 9%, and to accumulate additional capital buffers, according to market value of bonds having difficulties in the euro area they have.
“To calculate the need for additional capital based on returns so volatile it was the right decision”, said Nicolas Veron, strategist at Bruegel, a Brussels-based economic research agency. “This decision is the result of political negotiations, so it is not right to blame the EBA”. Any decision to change the government buffers will be considered only after consulting the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) – organization of central bankers in Europe, indicate the sources compiled by Bloomberg. “The need for these buffers and their size will be reviewed, where measures to tackle the debt crisis have an impact on bond markets”, said Andrea Henri in January, President of the EBA.

ECB is considering additional measures to stimulate crediting

Viliyana Filipova — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:16:15 +0000

Tomorrow the European Central Bank (ECB) may declare a series of new measures to stimulate crediting of the European banks. The options discussed include loosening the requirements for banks so that they have greater access to funds at the ECB and the provision of long-term loans to ensure the flow of credit to the economy, state officials asked for anonymity because of confidentiality of conversations. The two sources claim that the central bank is likely to again lower interest rates by a meeting tomorrow to be decided by how much. The ECB wants more to get banks to resume lending rather than increases the amount government bonds purchased. Eurozone governments to take measures to restore investor confidence seems to give results. Yields on Italian and Spanish government bonds fell after Germany and France agreed to build a fiscal union in the Eurozone.
“Tomorrow the ECB’s role will be largely associated with the banks is expected after the meeting liquidity in the sector to improve significantly”, said Silvio Peruzo, an economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London. “Division of tasks is quite clear , the ECB takes care of the banks and European governments on fiscal policy”, he said.

The Eurozone banks are competing for 2 trillion EUR in 2012

Viliyana Filipova — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 14:54:31 +0000

The European banks to compete with the governments of the euro area to recruit 2 trillion. dollars next year because of the need for refinancing of reaching maturity bonds. In 2012 the Eurozone governments have to repay 1.1 trillion. euros and short-term bonds and 519 billion of this amount are Italian, French and German bonds reaching maturity in the first half of the year. In the first half of next year, European banks need to service their debts to 665 billion dollars by the end of December, 370 billion dollars, revealed details of Citigroup Inc.
“Serious investors flee as the bonds of European banks and government securities of euro area countries”, said Mark Grant, director of Southwest Securities Inc. “The quality of the financial performance of both the asset class is in question and nothing is being done to tackle Europe’s debt crisis”. In 2012, the European banks need to refinance an average of 230 billion dollars every three months, said Lisa Hintz, an analyst at Moody’s Corp. in New York. For comparison, the 11 quarters September 30, 2011 banks have repaid an average of 132 billion dollars, she said.
“In such a situation of scarce funding banks to compete effectively with governments,” said Hitntz. “Just look at their business model. What soft loans could obtain an Italian or Spanish bank, when the price of its financing is similar to that of government bonds, or about 7% and above? “she said.

A Guide to Banks Loans: Where to Look for Commercial Loans

Viliyana Filipova — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 13:14:37 +0000

Commercial loans can serve a lot of purposes for both small and big companies from financing a business expansion to funding a project that would hopefully keep their business afloat. If you are a budding entrepreneur or an owner of a large corporation and are looking for a way to secure funds for something that you need for your business, read on for some tips on where you can start looking for a commercial loan that could help you out.
The best place to look for commercial loans would be online. This is primarily because a lot of banks today have already set up websites where they are able to offer plenty of information about the commercial loans that they have. As you go through your options, make sure that you would be researching about each type of commercial loan that you can get before making a decision.
You can also seek for the help of a financial advisor. Make sure, however, that the financial advisor you would be hiring knows your company or your business well and has a lot of knowledge about commercial loans so that you can be certain that he or she would be able to help you in getting the loan that would best address whatever financial need you have.
Another way to find out about some of the best commercial bank loans you can get would be to ask for recommendations from trusted business contacts who have recently taken out a bank loan for their company. You can also check out online reviews about some of the banks that are offering commercial loans.

The profits of US banks with profits in the Q2 2011

Viliyana Filipova — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 22:25:30 +0000

The profits of the U.S. banks continue to rise, but the trend is due largely to fewer resources allocated to cover potential losses announced by the federal Agency for Deposit Insurance. The banking sector gained 28.8 billion dollars in the second quarter of 2011, which is 7.9 billion dollars over the same period last year. The agency warned again that this increase in profit can not be supported simply by reducing the resources allocated against losses.
“Since the levels of reserves against losses approaching historic levels, the prospects for increasing profits thanks to lower reserves further decreased,” said acting chairman of the board of directors of the agency Martin Gryunbarg in his note. The revenues of banks continued to decline. In the second quarter operating income decreased by $ 3 billion or 1.8% compared to levels from the same period of 2010, by the agency. The positive signal for the sector is that part of the credit balance is increased for the first time in three years by 0.9% to 64.4 billion dollars.
The number of banks in the “problem list” of the agency fell for the first time in 15 quarters to 865 of 888 in the first quarter.

Ten US banks spent 16.3 million USD for lobbying

Viliyana Filipova — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:02:30 +0000

Ten U.S. banks that have received assistance with rescue money taxpayers have spent over 16 million dollars for lobbying during the first six months of the year. Money is spent to influence the participants in the debate on financial sector reform in the U.S. The regulatory data show that the ten banks that have received the largest share of state aid in 2008 and 2009 spent a lot to influence the views of members of Congress, representatives of the White House, Treasury, Federal Reserve, and some of the federal agencies involved in designing the new regulatory framework. “I’m not surprised that these banks have spent so much money because I saw every day how it happens,” said Ed Mirtsvinski, director of the US Public Interest Research Group. He said reform of the financial sector have worked over 2000 lobbyists. The new regulatory framework, signed by President Barack Obama in July, with volumes in 2300 pages and outlines new rules for derivative trading, charging and regulation of transactions with debit and credit cards. Many of the new rules laid down by banks as too harsh and cause discontent. The sum of 16.32 million dollars set aside for lobbying during the first half, with 26 percent more than the money allocated to this activity for the same period last year.
Most active lobbyists were JPMorgan Chase, which received 3.03 million dollars in the first half. Spent amount of Citigroup is 2.78 million dollars, and Goldman Sachs spent 2.77 million dollars. Top five is completed by Bank of America and Wells Fargo, which were separated by 2 million dollars. None of the financial institutions did not wish to comment on what was spent this money ends of AP material.

Three more banks were closed for a week in USA

Viliyana Filipova — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 10:49:37 +0000

The end of the working week has brought the closure of three U.S. banks. Thus the number of bank failures in the country since the beginning of the year amounted to 86 and is on track to improve last year’s record of 140 closed financial institutions – the highest number since 1992. Federal deposit insurance corporation in (FDIC) has closed banks in the states of Florida and New Mexico, Georgia, as buyers are financial institutions by the states. The three failure will cost the FDIC 284,6 million dollars. “The growing problems in commercial property and the ongoing crisis in housing loans will cause many bankruptcies,” said Walter Mix, managing director at financial consulting firm LECG LLC. Over the next three and a half years the bank will claim the bankruptcy 60 billion dollar fund to FDIC, said by the corporation on 22nd June. Fund out of deficit in third quarter of last year. Florida-based Peninsula Bank was purchased by Premier American Bank, owned by Bond Street Holdings LLC. January Holding buy two troubled banks. First National Bank of Jordan was been sold by the FDIC of Savannah Bank, a High Desert State Bank in New Mexico – the First American Bank. In the first quarter of this year the list of troubled banks FDIC counts 775 institutions with assets of 431 billion.
At the end of last year’s list were 702 credit institutions with assets of 403 billion dollars, said in a quarterly report to the regulator.

UBS with profit for the last quarter of 2009

Viliyana Filipova — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:45:02 +0000

The Swiss bank UBS came first profit since Oswald Gryubel assumed leadership of the company a year ago. Net profit for the financial institution for the fourth quarter of 2009 amounted to 1.205 billion Swiss francs (1.1 billion), Reuters reported. This is a significant improvement compared to the same period in 2008 when the bank had a loss of 9.58 billion francs. The improvement is partly due to a tax credit of 480 million Swiss francs, and the reduction of bonuses. However, under pressure from the continuing effects of the global financial crisis led to tax evasion cases in the United States and pressure from other countries for violation of banking secrecy to disclosure of tax crimes, UBS continues to lose the trust of its customers. “We are sure that the measures we took for withdrawal of capital from the bank’s clients are effective, but in the immediate future we expect to continue to draw,” says Oswald Gryubel CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors Vilidzhar Kasper in a letter to investors.
The Customers of UBS have pulled 56 billion francs in the fourth quarter compared to 37 billion francs in the previous quarter. Withdrawal of funds from the financial institution became reality after the campaigns in different countries, including the United States seeking assistance from the Swiss banks to obtain data on their customers for disclosure of tax crimes. However, the management of UBS commented that the Swiss government hopes to find “alternative mechanisms” and compromise with the tax and in particular those in the U.S..

Soros has called for radical reform of the banking sector

Viliyana Filipova — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 01:41:25 +0000

The legendary investor George Soros called from Davos to radically reduce the size of banks that are too big to be allowed to fail transmitted BBC. At the World Economic Forum, he spoke in support of U.S. President Barack Obama in his attempts to separate commercial and investment banking. According to him, however, even after such action, most investment banks will still remain too large to fail. To control these banks, all major economies need to rally around strict rules to limit the risk – how much money banks can borrow to invest, “said billionaire. He acknowledges that it will be difficult to determine the exact ceiling on leverage, but that governments have enough time to develop a global regulatory framework. George Soros called the current economic crisis “super bubble” which was created by the system itself, and was the culmination of a series of smaller balloons in the last 25 years, and unsuccessful attempts to remove them. They add balloons were caused by facilitated credit and high financial leverage. As regulators and bankers were wrongly believed that markets are efficient, Soros continued, and were blinded by ideology that they should always be less regulated. And when the bubble burst, governments and regulators to further worsen the situation by reducing interest rates make money cheaper and thus to the mortgage crisis in the United States, which rocked the entire financial system.
Soros also warned politicians to prevent hasty and ill-considered regulation. According to him it is wrong to impose high taxes on the profits of banks, because the crisis is still not fully overcome.

Mayor of London warned bankers for unexpected risks from Switzerland

Viliyana Filipova — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 16:54:59 +0000

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson warned the bankers to stay in the City of London, warning that the temptation to move to Switzerland to them face unexpected risks, officials said. “I am told that there are some parts of the canton of Bern, where men are not allowed to urinate made after 10 o’clock at night so as not to disturb their neighbors,” Johnson told a reception organized by the Japanese investment bank Nomura in the ski resort of Davos, which is currently being held traditional World Economic Forum. His comments in the room full of bankers, were made on the news that some hedge funds and investment bankers leave London and move to Switzerland to avoid the EU regulations or imposed in the UK tax revenue over a specified amount and on bonuses. “Time is the master of the universe to show that they can be both servants of society,” said Johnson, a former journalist and a frequent guest on satirical TV shows.
Moreover, Johnson has warned bankers that they have greater chances of survival in London than in New York. “Although the murders in New York are at their lowest level for all times, however, there are three times more likely to be killed in New York than in London, says London mayor.