Private Dexia has decided to save himself. Almost. A board of directors convened this evening to endorse the plan for ending the crisis that developed hard its CEO, Pierre Mariani. Faced with a massive liquidity crisis (the other institutions did give more credits), the Franco-Belgian bank has no choice but to sell the family jewels while isolating its portfolios and non-performing assets in a " bad bank. " It is a page of history which European banking turns. Because at the end of this work, there should exist no more of this construction Franco-Belgian.
Pierre Mariani, who arrived in October 2008 to save Dexia strangled by a need for short-term funding of 265 billion euros of assets impossible to meet, had done everything to reduce the group's balance sheet. In three years, he was able to reduce the need for 96 billion.Las! With sovereign debt crisis, which has again closed the valve finance is still far too. And states can no longer play the firefighters.
Thus, Pierre Mariani resolved to opt for an orderly liquidation scenario. Instead of sales, the Franco-Belgian group prefers to speak of "backing of (its) business franchises." Retail banking in Belgium, the Turkish subsidiary Denizbank, asset management and private banking: all subsidiaries of Dexia will seek and lessee in the coming days. According to one familiar with the matter, some sales process is well underway. Britain's Standard Chartered, in particular, did not hold in recent months to report its interest in the coveted Denizbank.
However, if the Franco-Belgian group has some beautiful assets, some remain unmarketable.Difficult indeed to generate interest for Italian or Spanish Crediop Sabadell open doubt about the state of public finances in Italy and Spain. Initially, according to our information, Pierre Mariani had planned to build packages of assets, including both of the jewels and lame ducks, so as not to keep the latter in his pouch. But this option proved too complicated to implement. However, it is urgent if we are to preserve the clients who are starting to worry greatly poor credit personal loans.
Political issue
This sense of urgency felt this weekend in Paris. After weeks of tension, the Deposit, the Postal Bank and Dexia reached an agreement after final dealings these days under the blue helmet René Ricol.The portfolio of loans to French local authorities and will be taken over by an entity owned by Caisse des Depots et La Banque Postale.
The operation has, as revealed Le Figaro (our editions of September 24), an interest factor: out of stock of Dexia about 80 billion euros of assets, primarily loans to French local authorities to transfer them to the new entity. For the Franco-Belgian bank, it will be much less to refinance. Dexia Municipal Agency, the company that issues mortgage bonds on behalf of Dexia, also switch into the orbit of the CDC and the Postal Bank in order to maintain the AAA rating necessary for its operations.
With this scheme, Dexia will be able to blow some time, time to complete the rest of his program.The creation of the "bad bank", in particular, may be difficult, given its political and financial stakes. French and Belgian States, indeed, should be asked to give their guarantee for installation of such defeasance. In other words, adding safeguards in a situation where all states are seeking to reduce their debt instead is far from a challenge.
On Monday evening, the Minister of Economy, Baroin, met his Belgian counterpart Didier Reynders, in conjunction with the meeting of finance ministers from the euro area. The French and Belgian governments "do the right thing" to support their banks, said Didier Reynders.
The financial restructuring of Dexia, finally, could have serious consequences for Belgium and its banking system.Some Belgian shareholders of Dexia, as the Holding Communal, would have difficulty recovering from an operation on the truth value of their assets. Relations between France and the United will play at the moment.
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