Euro bank funding, collateral, and outlook

Bank borrowing from the ECB reach a new high for the year at today’s 7-day repo operation. Banks borrowed 247.17 bln euros for a week at 1.25% fixed rate.

The key question is what are banks doing with those euros. The answer is that banks appear to be recycling those funds by putting them on deposit with the

Full Text: Moody’s: Outlook for Ireland’s banking system remains negative

The following is the text of today’s Moody’s press release on the Irish banking system. London, 21 November 2011 — The outlook on Ireland’s banking system remains negative, says Moody’s Investors Service in a Banking System Outlook published today. The negative outlook has been in place since 2008 and continues to reflect (i) the banks’

AIG chairman says that you just don’t get it

It’s been almost three years to the day since AIG was bailed out. And guess what? AIG still owes taxpayers $49.4 BILLION! That’s more than half the budget of the Department of Education. What was that about taxpayers getting their money back, Steve? It’s not that we don’t “understand how this country works”, Steve. We understand it all too well–it works for you and your buddies on the AIG board. It’s not working out so well for the rest of us

Full Text: Moody’s takes rating actions on 12 German Landesbanken

The following is the text of the recent ratings action taken by Moody’s on twelve German state-owned banks

Those MF Global MFs!

We have a good friend with money tied up in the MF Global debacle. As of November 1st, he had close to $100K in his “segregated” futures account with no open positions. He says the MF Global website is shut down and the phones don’t ring when he calls. This guy was a “big swinging Richard” at one of Wall Street’s biggest firms and now trades his own account.

Here is his letter of rebuke to MF Global, which he passed on to us. Can you tell he is a little peeved

Regulatory handicapping: the CFTC edition

And just two days after I reported on the starve-the-beast strategy that’s forcing the SEC to pursue Mickey-Mouse settlements with the big banks, we learn of plans to handicap the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission in a similar fashion

Regulators encouraging banks to game risk models

Andrew Haldane, in my opinion, generally has the right idea about banks and their risks, which are risks not just “to themselves” but to all of society and the global economy. Yet here Haldane’s endorsing the sort of sleight of hand that banks are all too ready to perform with no encouragement. Not a good sign

Meeting Bank Capital Requirements in Europe

There are a number of ways that European banks are moving to boost their Tier 1 capital and strengthen their balance sheets. Some are cutting dividends, diluting current share holders through new rights issues, laying off staff, and selling off assets

In defense of the SEC — no, really

The Finance Addict writes : “We need to put our cynic hats on and start questioning why it is that the SEC isn’t getting any. My guess–it’s no accident.”

Video: Warren Buffett on ‘Too Big to Fail’

Here’s more from Warren Buffett on CNBC this morning. This time he talks to Becky Quick about ‘Too Big To Fail’. CNBC host Joe Kernen takes sides with the Occupy Wall Street protesters and asks Buffett whether we can regulate them to “keep them honest” or whether we need to “break them up”. Buffett responds in the video below

Bill Black: What I’d Demand of the Fed

In this interview from late October, Professor Bill Black tells us what he would demand, if he marched with Occupy Wall St. to the New York Fed

BofA delays Countrywide bankruptcy

The word is that BofA did in fact consider declaring their Countrywide subsidiary bankrupt to ring fence the rest of the company from Countrywide. It got as far as a board vote this past summer.

This Wall Street Journal video discusses the issues of why it has postponed the bankruptcy filing