Monday, October 10, 2011

Last Call

And Europe seems to have survived another deadline with Belgium agreeing to nationalize and bail out banking giant Dexia and France and Germany pledging to recapitalize the rest of the European major banks.

Dexia agreed to the nationalization of its Belgian retail bank and secured 90 billion euros ($121 billion) in state guarantees, in a rescue that raises pressure on other euro zone countries to strengthen their banks.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Sunday they would tackle Greece's woes and agree how to recapitalize the regions' banks by the end of the month, but they declined to reveal details of their plan.

"We expect the EU to come up with a minimum core Tier One (capital) level under certain stress scenarios and a higher one without any stress. Then banks will be asked to reach this level in a short period of time," said a senior banker in Germany.


The question is how much will be needed?  British PM David Cameron wants to take the Hank Paulson approach.


British Prime Minister David Cameron told his euro zone peers to adopt a "big bazooka" solution.

"If capital is to have any chance of stabilizing the banks, it will need to be large: we would start with the IMF's 200 billion euros," said Alastair Ryan, analyst at UBS. This could involve euro zone governments owning 40 percent of the sector if such a sum was to come from the state, he estimated.



That's not chump change, and neither is the EU owning 40% of the European banking sector.  Could this be the EU's move to finally nationalize and unwind the Too Big To Fail banks?  Maybe...but I doubt it.

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