雅思阅读:The screw tightens
ONE can almost hear the gates clanging: one after the other the sources of funding for Europes banks are being shut. It is a result of the highly visible run on Europes government bond markets, which today reached the heart of the euro zone: an auction of new German bonds failed to generate enough demand for the full amount, causing a drop in bond prices .
Now another runmore hidden, but potentially more dangerousis taking place: on the continents banks. People are not yet queuing up in front of bank branches . But billions of euros are flooding out of Europes banking system through bond and money markets.
At best, the result may be a credit crunch that leaves businesses unable to get loans and invest. At worst, some banks may failand trigger real bank runs in countries whose shaky public finances have left them ill equipped to prop up their financial institutions.
To make loans, banks need funding. For this, they mainly tap into three sources: long-term bonds, deposits from consumers, and short-term loans from money markets as well as other banks. Bond issues and short-term funding have been seizing up as the panic over government bonds has spread to banks . This blockage has been made worse by tighter capital regulations that are encouraging banks to cut lending .
Markets for bank bonds were the first to freeze. In the third quarter bonds issues by European banks only reached 15% of the amount they raised over the same period in the past two years, reckon analysts at Citi Group. It is unlikely that European banks have sold many more bonds since.
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2016-02-26
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