Monday, December 19, 2011

Troubling signs for European Banks - in the EuroZone

European finance ministers will aim to agree on a new €200 billion (£167.7 billion) loan to the International Monetary Fund as part of a deal to save the single currency. Three quarters of the money is expected to come from euro zone members, but Britain will also be asked to provide funds. Figures suggest European Union officials expect British taxpayers to be the second largest contributor. The Prime Minister has repeatedly promised not to provide any extra funding for the IMF for the specific purpose of saving the euro and Britain is already liable for £12 billion of loans and guarantees to Ireland, Greece and Portugal. Earlier this month, EU countries set today as the deadline to raise up to €200  billion in new loans for the IMF to deal with the eurozone crisis. Finance ministers will hold a conference call in an attempt to reach agreement on the war chest. Under IMF rules, Britain would underwrite a portion of loans to struggling countries, but only pay out if they defaulted. Only countries that are members of the IMF and contribute to its wealth can apply for loans. The Prime Minister has argued that no country has ever lost money by lending to the IMF. Yesterday it emerged that the Foreign Office was drawing up contingency plans to evacuate up to a million expats from Spain and Portugal in the event of a European banking crash.

However, I say that Euro-sceptics should not predict the demise of the euro with “a sense of glee” as this would put “millions of people’s livelihoods” at risk....but they deserve it , since they voted for this poisoned currency and for "hitler's dream" called EU that impoverished all of us and made us dependent of non elected officials and airheads called MEP's.

Southern European investors, fearful of the health of their banks and the future of the euro, are increasingly stashing their wealth in currencies, real estate and investment products outside the euro zone, say bankers and government officials.In a troubling sign for European banks, investors in Greece, Portugal and Italy are asking bankers and lawyers for ways to protect their money in the case of a failure of euro-zone banks or a breakup of the euro itself. Some are converting deposits into currencies such as the Swiss franc. Others are buying real estate outside the monetary union.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jean Claude Juncker, the head of the Eurogroup, said all 27 European Union finance ministers, including George Osborne, would talk together tomorrow afternoon to approve or reject extending the funds to the IMF as agreed in Brussels by December 19. The loans would be used by the IMF to support struggling eurozone countries.

The finance ministers are also tasked with devising a voting system to govern the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) after the Brussels decision to replace unanimity sparked a revolt. The ministers are under pressure to have a deal ready for approval by EU leaders when they convene on Tuesday.

There are fears that a failure to reach an agreement on either the IMF loans or the ESM would rattle markets which already have to digest the mass credit rating downgrade warnings on eurozone sovereigns that were announced on Friday night.

Fitch placed six countries, including Spain and Italy, on “negative watch”, while Moody’s downgraded Belgium. Standard & Poor’s has said 15 eurozone states face a downgrade, including France and Germany.

Mariano Rajoy is due to make his first speech to the Spanish parliament, setting out his long-awaited austerity plans. The new prime minister has hardly made any public announcements on Spain’s economic future since he was swept to power last month.

Anonymous said...

EU is a nice scam.Few big countries have all the power and things are great they are all good friends and when things go bad they blame the small players.In 2007 they agreed to let Romania and Bulgaria join Eu.I could not belive it.I was born in Romania.You cannot imagine a poorer country than Romania.My mam use to work in a small factory for 120 euro per month.My dad repairs shoes for aabout 100 euro per month.0 motorways,1 bad aeroport in Bucharest,coruption in evereything,bribe works in the hospitals,borders,police,etc.Nothing works in that place.But they were welcomed in UE as german or french equals.Why?
1 year later 80% of the romanian agricol land is owned by scandinavians (they paid 500 euro per acre of top class black soil land),all the romanian oil was sold to OMV Austria for close to nothing, romanians autorities being forced by their ue partners to do that.Renault France got a brand new factory (Ex Dacia cars factory) for 1 euro,The best romanian bank was sold to Societe Generale for 10% of its value and the list can go forever.Now they ask romanians to sort out their economy but ups,they dont have an economy anymore!Ue sold it all to their friends!So irish do what the greeks did and pay nothing to those useless ue!