Tag: Banks

Banking officials at a conference in New York City have reportedly admitted that despite their statements about the importance of energy savings, they are reluctant to lend money in practice.

Cyprus plans to lift a ban on casinos and offer firms tax exemptions on profits reinvested on the island under a package of reforms to kickstart its ailing economy, its president said yesterday (1 April).

The eurogroup’s insistence that Cyprus’ anti-money laundering framework is assessed by a private firm violates EU law, argues Andreas Frank.

Eurozone finance ministers pledged yesterday (4 March) to agree a bailout for Cyprus by the end of March, but details of how the rescue will be financed are yet to be sorted out.

Financial market fraudsters across the EU could face imprisonment from next year under new EU-wide banking rules voted by MEPs in the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee yesterday (October 9).

The euro rose to a seven-week high against the US dollar yesterday (21 August), fuelled by speculation the European Central Bank could soon act to stem the region's debt crisis by lowering Spanish and Italian borrowing costs.

The Danish EU presidency plans today (2 May) to seek agreement on compromise measures designed to beef up capital requirements on 8,300 banks across Europe, as finance ministers meet for a special meeting in Brussels.

Restoring trust in banking depends on policymakers to establish a stable and sustainable new regulatory framework and by bankers themselves to address flawed past governance and management practices, writes Simon Lewis, CEO of the London-based association for financial markets in Europe (AFME).

While financial services and banking firms are increasingly looking to cloud computing services to enhance their businesses, actual take-up is being hampered by legal uncertainties and conflict between the EU and the US over data privacy.

The European Commission will today (25 July) propose a new legal tool to freeze the bank accounts of debtors in a bid to facilitate the recovery of cross-border credit and boost the EU-wide activities of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The London Stock Exchange is collaborating with the European Commission to devise new funding mechanisms for SMEs, and new SME envoys from all member states will meet for the first time in Budapest next week, the European Business Summit heard yesterday (19 May).

Irish leader Brian Cowen's blanket guarantee for the country's banks was ''one of the most catastrophic political decisions taken in post-war Europe'' due to the lack of a wider EU strategy to tackle the sector's problems, writes Wolfgang Münchau of Eurointelligence, who is also an associate editor at the Financial Times.

European Banking Federation President Alessandro Profumo yesterday (12 July) offered to set up a voluntary €20 billion rescue fund for failing banks funded by the top 20 EU credit institutions. Although the move follows Brussels' push in this direction, the European Commission reacted warily to his announcement.

Hungarian banks warned that a bank tax put forward by the country's government would only harm the sector, which has proven to be viable even in the worst periods of the economic crisis. EurActiv Hungary reports.

As the threat of sovereign debt default looms over Greece, the turmoil engulfing the euro zone is exacerbating the ongoing credit crunch for companies, according to BusinessEurope, a Brussels-based EU industry federation.

Britain's banks say a special tax on bankers' bonuses which is being considered by the government would be "populist" and could damage the sector and the country's position as an industry hub.

An EU consultation on how to put European banks on a level playing field and spread the burden of future crises was launched yesterday (21 October), but experts raised serious doubts over how the EU will convince member states to agree to the collective responsibility of bank rescues.

Policymakers and financial actors in Europe have been at loggerheads about pending regulations to ensure that a financial crisis of this magnitude does not happen again and that taxpayers do not bear the costs. But regulation must be careful not to disconnect Europe's nascent recovery from sources of credit, BusinessEurope's chief economist Marc Stocker told EurActiv in an interview.

EU competition regulators will begin scrutinising bonuses at state-aided banks, EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said on Friday (11 September).

The Irish government has announced plans to establish a 'bad bank' in a bid to quarantine toxic assets and restore confidence in its ailing financial system. The move comes as part of a tough emergency budget, and makes Ireland the first EU member state to adopt such a strategy to deal with the credit crisis.

The fifteen euro area countries have outlined a common strategy to inject fresh capital into their ailing banking sectors in a move which broadly replicated a blueprint presented last week by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

EU finance ministers yesterday (7 October) agreed to raise the minimum guarantee for individual bank deposits from €20,000 to €50,000 in an attempt to reassure European account holders.

Top officials from Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the EU held emergency meetings over the weekend to prevent bank and insurance giant Fortis from becoming the eurozone's first major victim of the global financial crisis.