LONDON (Reuters) - A senior U.S. regulator was "optimistic" on Monday about finding a framework for the world's top economy to use global book keeping rules for investors to compare cross-border companies. "We are hopeful we can put forward a model," James Kroeker, chief accountant at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission …
Showing posts with label banks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label banks. Show all posts
Monday, February 20, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
S&P lowers ratings on 34 Italian banks
NEW YORK (AP) — Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has lowered its ratings on 34 Italian banks, citing concerns over Italy's financial vulnerability and expectations for weak profits at the banks.
Among the banks downgraded Friday were some of Italy's largest, including UniCredit SpA, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA.
The agency also lowered its Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment for Italy to "4'' from "3." The so-called BICRA rating is on a 1-to-10 scale, with "1'' representing countries with the lowest-risk banking systems.
S&P's action came after the agency downgraded the credit rating on Italy's government debt by two notches last month. It was among nine countries that use the euro that were downgraded by S&P in January.
S&P downgrades 34 Italian banks
MILAN (Reuters) - Rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded 34 Italian banks on Friday, including heavyweights UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo , citing a reduced ability to roll over their wholesale debt and expected weak profitability.
The move follows S&P's downgrade of Italy's sovereign rating last month to BBB+, part of a mass downgrade of nine euro zone countries.
In a statement, S&P said its so-called Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment had worsened to group 4 from group 3 -- out of 10 groups -- reflecting its more negative view on Italy's banking system.
"Italy's vulnerability to external financing risks has increased, given its high external public debt, resulting in Italian banks' significantly diminished ability to roll over their wholesale debt," it said.
"We anticipate persistently weak profitability for Italian banks in the next few years, and a risk-adjusted return on core banking products that may not be sufficient for banks to meet their cost of capital.
We believe this may be negative for the Italian banking industry's stability."
Italian banks have borne the brunt of a sell-off in Italian assets since the euro zone's third-largest economy was dragged into the single currency bloc's debt crisis last summer.
Because of their vast holdings of domestic government bonds, Italy's top five banks have been asked to find some 15 billion euros by June to meet tougher capital requirements set by the European Bnaking Authority.
Lenders have also been effectively shut out of wholesale debt markets and have increased their reliance on cheap funds from the European Central Bank.
Italian banks tapped a whopping 116 billion euros of nearly 500 billion euros of three-year funds offered by the ECB last December, easing funding strains.
A similar operation will be held at the end of February and analysts expect Italian banks to further increase their borrowing from the ECB.
S&P said weak profitability and increased cost of capital could lead Italian banks to write down a large part of the goodwill they booked during a wave of industry consolidation over the past decade.
Such writedowns forced UniCredit, Italy's biggest bank by assets, to announce a 10.6 billion euro loss in the third quarter of 2011.
Among the banks downgraded, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena
(Reporting By Silvia Aloisi, editing by Dave Zimmerman)
S&P lowers rating on 34 Italian banks
NEW YORK (AP) — Standard & Poor's Ratings Services on Friday lowered its ratings on 34 Italian banks, citing concerns over Italy's financial vulnerability and expectations for weak profits at the banks.
Among the banks downgraded were some of Italy's largest, including UniCredit SpA, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA.
The banking-sector downgrades came after S&P downgraded its credit rating on Italy's government debt by two notches last month.
"In our view, Italy's vulnerability to external financing risks has increased, given its high external public debt, resulting in Italian banks' significantly diminished ability to roll over their wholesale debt," S&P said in a statement.
The agency also lowered its Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment for Italy to "4'' from "3." The so-called BICRA rating is on a 1-to-10 scale, with "1'' representing countries with the lowest-risk banking systems.
"We anticipate persistently weak profitability for Italian banks in the next few years," S&P said.
S&P downgraded the credit ratings of a nine countries that use the euro in January, including bumping Italy's credit rating down two notches. Debt ratings can play a significant role in determining countries' borrowing costs by forcing them to pay higher interest rates to compensate borrowers for taking on added risk.
Italy has been a focus of much of the worry over the European debt crisis, given its high debt levels and intense borrowing needs. The country passed austerity measures and is on a structural reform course that government leaders claim should bring down Italy's high bond yields.
The S&P downgrade last month did not have the immediate disastrous effect in Europe that was anticipated, due in part to growing investor confidence in those countries' economic policies and the impact of the European Central Bank's decision to loan hundreds of billions of euros to banks at very low rates.
However, Fitch Ratings followed suit in two weeks with a special warning for Italy that it could face permanently higher borrowing costs that would make it harder to keep its debt under control. It resisted stronger ratings action because of the "strong commitment" of the new Italian government to balance the country's budget and make Italy a better place to do business.
Friday, February 10, 2012
S&P lowers rating on 34 Italian banks
NEW YORK (AP) — Standard & Poor's Ratings Services on Friday lowered its ratings on 34 Italian banks, citing concerns over Italy's financial vulnerability and expectations for weak profits at the banks.
Among the banks downgraded were some of Italy's largest, including UniCredit SpA, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA.
The banking-sector downgrades came after S&P downgraded its credit rating on Italy's government debt by two notches last month.
"In our view, Italy's vulnerability to external financing risks has increased, given its high external public debt, resulting in Italian banks' significantly diminished ability to roll over their wholesale debt," S&P said in a statement.
The agency also lowered its Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment for Italy to "4'' from "3." The so-called BICRA rating is on a 1-to-10 scale, with "1'' representing countries with the lowest-risk banking systems.
"We anticipate persistently weak profitability for Italian banks in the next few years," S&P said.
S&P downgraded the credit ratings of a nine countries that use the euro in January, including bumping Italy's credit rating down two notches. Debt ratings can play a significant role in determining countries' borrowing costs by forcing them to pay higher interest rates to compensate borrowers for taking on added risk.
Italy has been a focus of much of the worry over the European debt crisis, given its high debt levels and intense borrowing needs. The country passed austerity measures and is on a structural reform course that government leaders claim should bring down Italy's high bond yields.
The S&P downgrade last month did not have the immediate disastrous effect in Europe that was anticipated, due in part to growing investor confidence in those countries' economic policies and the impact of the European Central Bank's decision to loan hundreds of billions of euros to banks at very low rates.
However, Fitch Ratings followed suit in two weeks with a special warning for Italy that it could face permanently higher borrowing costs that would make it harder to keep its debt under control. It resisted stronger ratings action because of the "strong commitment" of the new Italian government to balance the country's budget and make Italy a better place to do business.
S&P lowers ratings on 34 Italian banks
NEW YORK (AP) — Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has lowered its ratings on 34 Italian banks, citing concerns over Italy's financial vulnerability and expectations for weak profits at the banks.
Among the banks downgraded Friday were some of Italy's largest, including UniCredit SpA, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA.
The agency also lowered its Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment for Italy to "4'' from "3." The so-called BICRA rating is on a 1-to-10 scale, with "1'' representing countries with the lowest-risk banking systems.
S&P's action came after the agency downgraded the credit rating on Italy's government debt by two notches last month. It was among nine countries that use the euro that were downgraded by S&P in January.
S&P downgrades 34 Italian banks
MILAN (Reuters) - Rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded 34 Italian banks on Friday, including heavyweights UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo , citing a reduced ability to roll over their wholesale debt and expected weak profitability.
The move follows S&P's downgrade of Italy's sovereign rating last month to BBB+, part of a mass downgrade of nine euro zone countries.
In a statement, S&P said its so-called Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment had worsened to group 4 from group 3 -- out of 10 groups -- reflecting its more negative view on Italy's banking system.
"Italy's vulnerability to external financing risks has increased, given its high external public debt, resulting in Italian banks' significantly diminished ability to roll over their wholesale debt," it said.
"We anticipate persistently weak profitability for Italian banks in the next few years, and a risk-adjusted return on core banking products that may not be sufficient for banks to meet their cost of capital.
We believe this may be negative for the Italian banking industry's stability."
Italian banks have borne the brunt of a sell-off in Italian assets since the euro zone's third-largest economy was dragged into the single currency bloc's debt crisis last summer.
Because of their vast holdings of domestic government bonds, Italy's top five banks have been asked to find some 15 billion euros by June to meet tougher capital requirements set by the European Bnaking Authority.
Lenders have also been effectively shut out of wholesale debt markets and have increased their reliance on cheap funds from the European Central Bank.
Italian banks tapped a whopping 116 billion euros of nearly 500 billion euros of three-year funds offered by the ECB last December, easing funding strains.
A similar operation will be held at the end of February and analysts expect Italian banks to further increase their borrowing from the ECB.
S&P said weak profitability and increased cost of capital could lead Italian banks to write down a large part of the goodwill they booked during a wave of industry consolidation over the past decade.
Such writedowns forced UniCredit, Italy's biggest bank by assets, to announce a 10.6 billion euro loss in the third quarter of 2011.
Among the banks downgraded, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena
(Reporting By Silvia Aloisi, editing by Dave Zimmerman)
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