The most obvious common point between 2008 and 2011 is obviously the rout of bank shares. Monday, for example, Crédit Agricole was at a record low.
Other signals, less visible but more alarming, are pressed to bright red in recent weeks. They relate to the refinancing of banks, that is to say their ability to borrow from the market – every day, every week, every semester or ten years – according to their needs and the life of their assets. The price of these loans exploded in Europe, he returned, on average, three months, its levels of spring 2009. Money is also more rare: the U.S. money market funds, major providers of short-term liquidity, have stopped their relationships with banks in Italy and Spain, and very significantly reduced their lending in Germany and France.Finally, deposits with Central Bank (ECB) swell again (more than 150 billion euros on Friday night), indicating that financial institutions prefer to entrust their surplus rather than lend it to others.
The symptoms are largely the same as in 2008. Yet the nature of the crisis is different. Three years ago, she found its roots in the defeat of the U.S. mortgage market, the famous subprime. Today is the public debt which is the mainspring of mistrust.
Doubts about the ability of European states to repay their loans undermine the banks. Because, on the Old Continent, 8% of banking assets – 3,000 billion – are sovereign debt, the banks are in Europe, part of the monetary system.Second, markets are finding that European political institutions are so far failed to implement a concerted and lasting solution. And if the Greek plan is not working, financial institutions should make provisions massive.
In 2008, financial stocks on the stock market knew a massacre led by the bad news from the front and U payday loan lenders.S. real estate mortgage. Today, they live to the rhythm of political Europe. The rout of bank shares yesterday was fueled by the regional election defeat Angela Merkel on Sunday, the delay of Italy on its austerity plan, and tensions emerged between Athens and the IMF.
Controversy with the IMF
Under these conditions, the remedies to the crisis can not be the same as those implemented three years ago.At the time, states had largely replaced the market to provide capital to banks and liquidity on a daily basis that they lacked. Today, Treasuries no longer have necessarily the means. The needs of banks are not necessarily the same. In terms of capital first. The controversy continues to rage on the appeal of Christine Lagarde to recapitalize, if necessary by force and public funds, European banks. These have yet raised $ 414 billion of capital since 2008 (against 314 billion U.S.), recalled Monday the International Institute of Finance. "A forced recapitalization would signal that policy makers do not believe the success of their measures," complained the head of Deutsche Bank, Josef Ackermann.
Regarding liquidity, strong strains may not lead necessarily to a global asphyxia as in 2008.The valves of the central banks are now more wide open than they were at the time. And meanwhile, the banks have loosened their funding constraints in the short term. In Europe, they have raised $ 544 billion of debt this year, for up to 90% of their needs for the entire year. A situation that does not allow to exclude an "accident" in a particular bank. And leaves intact the concerns for 2012.
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