Even if the @EBA_News headlines tries its best, it’s hard to find bad news in their latest risk dashboard on European banks: capital is up, NPLs are down, profitability jumped sharply…
@EBA_News When you think about it, it’s crazy how the Covid fears were exaggerated (more on why below.) I mean, look at this: even the most affected sector only saw a very modest rise in NPLs. A 25% scenario would not have been absurd! We're barely at 9% vs 8% in Q1 2020.
@EBA_News Payment holidays on loans are in freefall, with meaningful # only remaining in Spain, Italy or Portugal.
@EBA_News And what’s happening to expired ones? Can borrowers repay?
Well, there are NPLs, of course, but tbh the amounts are very modest and way lower than expectations from a year ago.
This is pure gold, Greek edition.
How did Eurobank achieve such an increase in capital ratios, in Q3 24? The trick is in the +99bps.
Which comes from a mysterious decrease of 2.4bn€ in RWA. But how? Deleveraging?
Oh no, that would be hard work. I’ve got a better idea.
Thread.
It’s obviously the ICAP CRIF CQS, you idiot. Err, what?
Here’s the explanation, & it’s beautiful.
Under Basel/EU rules, banks using the standard approach (no internal ratings) have capital charges (RWA) based on external ratings which are then mapped on so-called “Credit Quality Steps” that give RWA using this table.
BNP has very good notes on the US elections and how to trade them. They are mostly focused on timing and the info you should focus on. Here's my summary
Before the elections
Apart from betting markets / polls, a source of info is mail-in ballot statistics.
Early voting doesn’t favor the Dems as much as 2020 (but Covid).
Before the elections
Some states - notably Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan North Carolina - start counting on Nov 5th. They are important states so could provide info.
Maybe you’ve seen the crazy price action on Close Brothers last Friday or heard about the Hopcraft appeal court ruling and its impact for UK banks.
What is it about?
I’ll try to explain why it’s important but not Armageddon.
This is all about getting financing when you buy a car, more precisely getting so-called “Point of sale” financing, i.e. the car dealer acts as broker for the actual bank or finance company providing the loan.
Back in 2021 the FCA banned a dubious practice: the broker’s fee was higher if the loan rate was higher, i.e. there was an incentive to propose a bad client deal. The Financial Ombudsman Service ruled (on pre-ban sales) with an indication of how redress should be calculated.
Commercial real estate lending is one of the biggest risks to the banking sector (hello, NYCB ?) – so it’s crucial that banks have an accurate assessment of the value of the collateral they have. The ECB did an inspection on this recently, and the results are hilarious. Thread.
For reference, the fair value of the collateral should be this
But what do banks really do? It's the horror museum.
For those of you trying to make sense of that story, here’s a recap. It’s wild.
RBI is a large Austrian bank formerly making 50% of its profits in Russia. After Russia invaded Ukraine, what happens to this biz is obviously their key financial, strategic and political question
Everyone in the “West” is pushing for a full exit but it’s not that easy because there’s also Russian law, RBI staff on the ground in Russia, clients, etc., no easy buyer to find and some argue selling for à like SG did is just handing out money to Putin’s cronies.
In Feb 2023 things start getting a bit awkward for RBI: it receives a request for information from OFAC – but we didn't really get to know what it was about.