Amerikanische Banken helfen europäischen Banken:
US banks have become the unlikely saviours of their ailing European counterparts, signing private agreements to lend them billions of dollars in recent weeks after an exodus of nervous money market funds left many without ready access to short-term funding.
Agreements worth tens of billions of dollars have been signed in the last month alone, according to bankers directly involved, who added that senior management of firms on both sides of the transactions have been closely involved with hammering out deals.
French lenders are among those using such facilities, say bankers, although deals have also been struck with UK and other European firms. Loans have been made as repo agreements, with banks posting assets such as corporate loans and mortgage portfolios as collateral.
“We were able to use some of our assets to get long-term repos,” said one board member at a French bank. “It was a move we made to monetise some of the assets we had on the balance sheet which were good, quality assets, and also to mitigate the withdrawal of money market funds.”
Such deals, struck behind closed doors, show how European banks have been forced to look elsewhere for funding in recent weeks following the partial closure of many traditional sources such as US dollar money markets and unsecured bonds.
Und die Notenbanken versuchen, weitere Liquidität zur Verfügung zu stellen:
The European Central Bank said it will lend euro-area banks dollars in three separate three-month loans to ensure they have enough of the U.S. currency through the end of the year. The European Central Bank said it will lend dollars to euro-area banks in a series of three-month loans as the region’s debt crisis limits market access to the U.S. currency.
The Frankfurt-based ECB said it will coordinate with the Federal Reserve and other central banks to conduct three separate dollar liquidity operations to ensure banks have enough of the currency through the end of the year.
Mehr als ein bisschen Zeitgewinn ist dadurch aber noch nicht erreicht.
Barry Ritholtz äußerte sich so über die jüngsten Notenbankaktionen:
Today is September 15 — three years ago, Lehman Brothers was allowed to do what insolvent companies are supposed to do — fail.
Hence, it is only fitting that five (Intergalactic) Central Banks arranged a massive liquidity operation to banks. There will be “three dollar-liquidity providing tenders before the end of the year in a coordinated move to offset shortages of dollars at European banks and businesses.”
Although this could be looked at as awful news — more economies and banks in such dire straights as to need yet another central bank bailout, moral hazard notwithstanding — the kneejerk response was relief. Dax is up 4%, US futures flipped positive, Dow now up 100.
Auch so kann ein Jahrestag begangen werden.
