European Banking System on Verge of Collapse; Market Votes “No Confide

Bron 1 : ZEW Study Concludes Deutsche Bank, Crédit Agricole, BNP Paribas Have Capital Shortfalls Totaling ¤214

Bron 2 : ZWE

The EBA’s latest “Stress-Free” tests of 51 banks Eurozone have a minuscule overall capital shortfall of 5.6 billion euros.

A ZEW study using more reasonable stress test measures concluded something much different.

According to ZEW, capital shortfalls of publicly listed banks in a market-based stress test totaled 675 billion euros.

Crédit Agricole, BNP Paribas, and Deutsche Bank were the worst of the lot.

German and French Banks Have Massive Capital Shortfalls

Inquiring minds are investigation the ZEW report Stress Scenarios Reveal Capital Shortfalls in EU Banking Sector.

quote:

European banks lack sufficient capital to offset the losses expected in the case of another financial crisis. Quite how big losses are depends, however, on the stress level to which banks are subject. A recent study carried out by Sascha Steffen (Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) and University of Mannheim) together with Viral Acharya (New York University Stern School of Business) and Diane Pierret (University of Lausanne) has considered results from the latest round of stress tests carried out for European banks. The study shows that the measured capital shortfalls differ to the extent of billions according to the stress scenario and the stress test methodology used. In particular, substantial differences are seen for banks in France, the United Kingdom, in Germany, Spain and Italy.

The researchers based their comparison on two benchmark methodologies; the approach taken by the European Banking Authority (EBA) in stress tests conducted in 2014, and the approach used by the US Federal Reserve (Fed) in the stress test conducted in the US banking sector in 2016 (CCAR 2016). Building on assumptions made in the EBA and Fed stress tests, researchers used a third, market-based approach, which assumed a global stock market decline of 40 per cent over six months. As in the EBA stress test conducted in 2016, the study considered 51 European banks, 34 of which are publicly listed.

German and French Banks Have the Largest Capital Shortfalls

Under the EBA methodology, the capital shortfalls of all 51 banks totalled 5.6 billion euros. The CCAR 2016 approach resulted in total capital shortfalls of 123 billion euros for all 51 banks. The banks with the largest capital shortfalls are the Deutsche Bank (19 billion euros), and the French banks, Société Générale (13 billion euros) and BNP Paribas (10 billion euros).

If the 34 publicly listed banks are considered, the differences between measured capital shortfalls are even more stark. Capital shortfalls of the publicly listed banks in the market-based approach totalled 675 billion euros, whilst the Fed stress test revealed shortfalls of 92 billion euros. The banks with the largest capital shortfalls were the French banks, Crédit Agricole (79 billion euros) and BNP Paribas (75 billion euros), and the Deutsche Bank (60 billion euros).

Main Objective: Lie

“The main objective of the recent EBA stress test was to achieve transparency in regard to bank capital adequacy in stress scenarios, not to reveal capital shortfalls that need to be taken care of immediately,” explains Professor Sascha Steffen, head of the ZEW Research Department “International Finance and Financial Management” and co-author of the study.

That’s a bit too polite. The main objective was to lie.

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Stress tests for Europe’s banks are Orwellian doublespeak. They are not designed to show the real state of lenders across the continent, nor do they provide any real insight into how the 51 banks examined in the latest exercise would withstand another crisis. Instead, the stress tests are designed to impart confidence, to explain that things aren’t quite as bad as they appear to be.

Even by this measure they have proved to be a failure. This much was evident from the caning taken by bank shares across Europe on Monday, when investors had the opportunity to pass judgment on the findings of the European Banking Authority, which were published after markets closed for business on Friday night.

There were three things glaringly wrong with the latest examination. The tests did not include banks from two of the most troubled eurozone countries: Greece and Portugal. They did not test for the most likely problem: a prolonged period of negative interest rates following Brexit that would further impair the profitability of European banks. And they did not say whether individual banks had passed or failed.

In order to give the exercise a tinge of credibility, the EBA singled out Italy’s Monte dei Paschi as a bank that would see all its capital wiped out under certain conditions: recession and a sharp increase in interest rates.

The truth is that Monte dei Paschi is the tip of a barely concealed iceberg.

Tip of Iceberg



Fed-Like Stress Test Shortfalls

Deutsche Bank: ¤19 billion
Société Générale: ¤13 billion
BNP Paribas: ¤10 billion

Market-Based Stress Test Shortfalls

Deutsche Bank: ¤60 billion
Crédit Agricole: ¤79 billion
BNP Paribas – ¤75 billion

Market Caps

Deutsche Bank: $17 billion
Société Générale: ¤25 billion
Crédit Agricole: ¤23 billion
BNP Paribas: ¤56 billion

The above banks would be wiped out in a realistic stress test scenario. The market acts as if they are insolvent or nearly insolvent already.
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Technisch gezien zijn het al zombie banken.

quote:

Op donderdag 11 augustus 2016 16:42 schreef Basp1 het volgende:
Maar als ik dan bijvoorbeeld naar de cijfers van BNP kijk zie ik dat ze vorig jaar 6 miljard winst hebben gedraaid waarom gaan die winsten dan niet naar de verhoging van hun kapitaal?

https://invest.bnpparibas.com/en/key-figures

Geen idee,
Afschrijvingen, Reorganisaties, Filalen afstoten, Rechzaken, Uittreden uit landen, kan van alles bedenken zonder justificatie.

Zerohedge pakt het verhaal ook op. Hoewel ik het blogje zerohedge niet echt hoog heb zitten.
Deutsche Bank Unexpectedly Found To Have Massive Capital Gap, Larger Than Its Entire Market Cap

After the ECB concluded its latest annual stress test, which as expected found no problems with Europe's largest banks instead scapegoating Italy's well-known troubled banks in results that were widely discredited by the market, yesterday in an unexpected outcome, German economic research institute ZEW found that Germany's largest bank, Deutsche Bank, had the highest potential capital shortfall, as much as ¤19 billion in a study of 51 European banks using U.S. Federal Reserve stress test methods. The capital gap is greater than DB's entire market cap.
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Dat geeft wel te denken.

quote:

Op donderdag 4 augustus 2016 16:34 schreef Wespensteek het volgende:

[..]

De markt sprak in 2007 ook maar dat bleek gebakken lucht die erg snel verdampte.

Heeft de narkt ook de potentiële verliezen van de banken in het vizier. De systeem bedragen hierachter zijn niet misselijk en banken zijn `way under preformance-market cap`. Dit kan nooit lang goed gaan.

[ Bericht 0% gewijzigd door Drugshond op 12-08-2016 04:15:56 ]

quote:

Op vrijdag 12 augustus 2016 01:37 schreef bedachtzaam het volgende:

[..]

Je link verwees naar 'page not found' vanwege een * in de eerste link.

Op Bloomberg is ook een artikel geplaatst.

Gracias

Italy on Verge of Recession: “Renzi-ism” Attacked by Five Star Movement; Renzi’s Enormous Gamble

Italy’s prime minister Matteo Renzi came under attack when Italy’s GDP unexpectedly slid to 0% vs. an expected gain of 0.2%.

The five star movement immediately blasted the performance of Renzi, whose constitutional reform package is under pressure.

If the reforms do not pass, Renzi threatened to resign.

Italy GDP



“Renzi-ism” Questioned

Please consider Critics Lambast Renzi’s Economic Plans as Italian Growth Stalls.

quote:

Italy’s unexpectedly weak performance, with data on Friday showing that GDP was flat compared to expectations of a 0.2 per cent gain, has dashed hopes that the eurozone’s third-largest economy was on a steady upswing under the prime minister’s watch. The country’s recent growth streak, which began in early 2015 following a triple-dip-recession, has stopped after five quarters.

Opposition critics immediately seized on the flat GDP, both to lambast the prime minister for his economic policies and also to urge Italians to vote against Mr Renzi in the referendum, in order to push him out of office.

“It will be a dark autumn for the government,” Renato Brunetta, the leader of Forza Italia, the centre-right party founded by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, said in a statement. “Italians will rightly vote ‘No’ in the referendum with their pocket books, they will have no pity [for] Renzi the charlatan.”

Alessandro di Battista, a senior member of the populist Five Star Movement that is neck-and-neck with Mr Renzi’s Democratic Party in the latest opinion polls, was equally scathing. “Public debt has skyrocketed, GDP is stuck and there are no new jobs. This is Renzi-ism,” Mr Di Battista tweeted, adding the hashtag #iodicono, meaning “I will vote no”.

[Here’s that elusive second half pickup idea again]

Loredana Federico, an economist at UniCredit, the Italian bank, expects economic growth to pick up again in the second half of the year, with overall growth coming in at 0.9 per cent for the year.

But others were less confident. “Rather than a further acceleration in the quarters ahead, the cyclical peak is probably already behind us, and growth looks set to slow for some time,” wrote Daniele Antonucci, an economist at Morgan Stanley.

Mr Renzi has recently floated plans for new fiscal stimulus in the 2017 budget, due in October, but his spending and tax relief options are likely to be limited if he cannot meet the EU commitments.

Renzi’s Enormous Gamble

The biggest beneficiary of the constitutional reform will be the party that wins the next election.

Given Renzi is running neck-and-neck with Five Star Movement (M5S), he is taking an enormous gamble.

The reforms will diminish the power of the Senate and give a majority of Parliament to the party that wins the election. As it stands now, M5S has at least as good a chance as Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD).

Should M5S win the next election they will likely seek referendums on the EU and Euro itself. Won’t that be fun?

Meanwhile, the economic situation in Italy is hardly likely to get any better.

The Italian banking system is still on the verge of collapse, and Renzi will not will not win significant stimulus concessions from Brussels given Italy’s lackluster economic performance.

Renzi better be careful of what he wishes. He many not want those reforms if he gets them.

quote:

Op maandag 15 augustus 2016 15:41 schreef Tocadisco het volgende:
De trigger voor een nieuwe crisis is in ieder geval alvast aangelegd:

Auto Lending: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Is niet alleen bij leningen bij auto´s. Ook de verstrekte onderwijsleningen is discutabel te noemen.

Things keep getting worse for EU banks
Investment banking in Europe is down, as Wall Street firms expand their presence overseas.

European Union banks just can't catch a break.



Many of them are still slogging uphill to recoup share price losses incurred from the Brexit vote in the U.K. European investment banking revenue overall is down 23 percent this year compared with the same period in 2015, according to data tracker Dealogic. And all are lagging behind U.S. banks for wallet share, or how much revenue they take in from dealmaking compared to competitors.

JPMorgan Chase tops every bank in the EU for wallet share, with 7.3 percent of deals, according to data from Dealogic this week.

It's followed by Goldman Sachs, which has 6.2 percent of deals, and only then, in third place, is an EU bank: Deutsche Bank has 5 percent of revenue on European mergers and acquisitions. But European banks (and their American counterparts) are fighting off a rising tide of boutique banks that have taken a growing percentage of M&A revenue from them over the last decade.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande (L) and European Union Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
Getty Images
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande (L) and European Union Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

Around the world, M&A levels have declined from recent record highs. But the pain is exacerbated in Europe, where big banks experienced a steeper drop off in revenue.

Dealogic data show that investment banking in Germany, for example, is down 45 percent. Globally, European deals account for just 22 percent of banking revenue, the lowest margin since Dealogic began tracking investment banking wallet share.

That comes in the wake of banks being hit especially hard on concerns about elevated loan losses, especially those coming from oil and gas assets.

But there is one small silver lining for EU banks. The European Central Bank's decision to ramp up bond buying means Europe's banks may find themselves working on more debt deals that juice their top line. So even if EU banks are stuck fighting off their American counterparts for M&A deals, they have another lever to pull to generate more cash.

Correction: European investment banking revenue overall is down this year compared with the same period in 2015. An earlier version misstated the time frame.

Italy's Renzi not worried at all about Monte dei Paschi



Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi arrives for the NATO Summit in Warsaw, Poland July 9, 2016. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel Italy's Prime Minister Renzi arrives for the NATO Summit in Warsaw Thomson Reuters

MARINA DI PIETRASANTA, Italy (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Sunday he was not worried about the situation at Italian lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena .

It emerged last week Monte dei Paschi's CEO Fabrizio Viola was under investigation for alleged false accounting and market manipulation in a case involving derivatives trades.

The investigation hits the Tuscan lender as it readies a 5 billion euro stock sale to strengthen its balance sheet after emerging as the weakest bank in Europe in July stress tests.

"Not at all," Renzi said when asked if he was concerned for the lender on the sidelines of a public interview.
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Fucking liar,

Italian Banks Continue to Lend to Stagnant Companies as Debt Pile Mounts

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In Italy, where two decades of economic stagnation have created a long line of barely breathing companies, Feltrinelli, one of the country’s largest booksellers, stands out.

Since 2012, the company has chalked up three consecutive years of losses totaling nearly 11 million euros ($12.4 million).

Even so, late last year, Feltrinelli was able to secure a fresh ¤50 million line of credit from a syndicate that included two of Italy’s largest banks, UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo, at an interest rate below what top-rated companies in Europe were paying.

As Italy and Europe more broadly struggle to come to grips with an escalating problem with bad loans, a new paper by economists connected to the Center for Economic Policy Research, a European policy shop, highlights the extent to which Italy’s main banks — known to be the weakest in the eurozone in terms of cash reserves — have stepped up their lending to the country’s most troubled companies.

In recent weeks, Italian bank stocks, down 70 percent for the year, have rallied, buoyed by recent stress-test results and, for some, earnings that were better than expected.

But with the International Monetary Fund estimating the size of Italy’s bad loan pile to be ¤360 billion — or about a third of the total amount in the eurozone — economists contend that any improvement in the debt situation will be short-lived.

At the heart of the problem, the research paper concludes, is a nexus of inert banks lending to inert companies that has kept a lid on the recovery of Italy’s economy, the third largest among countries that use the euro. The bank-driven slowdown recalls the zombie lending cycle that Japan entered in the 1990s, leading to its own lost economic decade.
Continue reading the main story

Then, instead of biting the bullet and taking losses, large Japanese banks kept credit lines open to borrowers even when they had slight chance of making good on the loans.

“Europe has not learned anything from Japan — it has just repeated the same mistakes,” said Tim Eisert, a German economist at Erasmus University in the Netherlands who participated in the study. “Mario Draghi may have saved the euro, but we still have undercapitalized banks in Europe.”

In their report, the economists calculate that if European banks were subjected to a scrubbing similar to what United States banks experienced, they would need to raise ¤125 billion in new capital.

At a time when investors across Europe have become deeply skeptical of investing in banks, and governments are loath to offer bailouts, achieving such a number borders on the impossible.

Moreover, since the onset of the debt crisis, Europe’s leaders have been slow to address their banking problems. In the regulators’ latest stress test, only one European bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena of Italy, came out as needing more capital.

Feltrinelli is just one example of a number of highly indebted Italian companies receiving loans at below-market interest rates over the last three years, a period when aggressive policies by the European Central Bank freed extra cash for European banks to dole out credit.

Other companies cited in the paper include the clothing retailer Benetton, which has lost ¤240 million since 2012, yet also received a below-market-rate loan in that year, according to data collected by the economists.

Massimiliano Tarantino, a public relations executive at Feltrinelli, said that the company had suffered during the recent crisis and was now shifting its strategy, making new investments in television, electronic publishing and book sales over the internet.

In their paper, the researchers found that of the ¤540 billion in syndicated European Union loans that they tracked, 8 percent went to companies that they classified as zombie institutions.

In Italy, however, the proportion of new loans that have gone to struggling companies like Feltrinelli over the last three years is much higher at 17 percent.

Italy is not the only country in Europe plagued by dud loans. In Greece, Yannis Stournaras, head of the country’s central bank, said recently that nonperforming loans were still on the rise and had reached a level of ¤108 billion — roughly one half the size of the overall economy.

In his speech, Mr. Stournaras said that 67 percent of the loans made to small and medium-size companies, the life blood of the Greek economy, were nonperforming, a statistic that explains in blunt terms why the Greek economy continues to stagnate.

As with Greek banks, Italian banks are similarly exposed to small private companies, many of which have been hit hard by the sluggish economy.

According to a paper on troubled Italian loans put out by the I.M.F. last month, three-quarters of the ¤360 billion bad loan figure are owed by Italian companies — most of which are small or medium-sized.

While such an amount, about 18 percent of total Italian loans outstanding, is certainly arresting, Italian government officials argue that sufficient steps have been taken to address the problem.

They say that banks have set aside cash to cover nearly half of the loans and that all of the exposures are backed by sufficient collateral.

They also point to the recent formation of a ¤4 billion fund that will buy some of the bad loans from the banks.

Still, ¤4 billion does not rise to the level of a bazooka that would give the markets confidence. And as the I.M.F. report lays out, Italian banks are among the least profitable in Europe, which gives them little incentive to write off their loans, especially when there are tax incentives for bankers to not take such a step.

Banks also have little incentive to pursue debtors in Italy’s courts. The I.M.F. study says that liquidations of troubled Italian companies last, on average, eight years, with preferred creditors likely to claw back just 29 percent of their claim.

So, instead of taking a hit, many Italian banks have decided to keep the liquidity flowing in the hope that a company might turn its fortunes around. But with growth averaging about 0.3 percent for the last two decades and now threatening to dip back into negative territory, a spate of corporate recoveries seems unlikely.

And the lesson for global regulators is a powerful one, the economists involved in the study argue.

Before using unconventional measures to inject cash into lending markets, central bankers must ensure that their large banks are sufficiently capitalized — as was the case in the United States, when one of the first steps regulators took was to force banks to increase their capital cushions. Without this extra layer of security, banks have little incentive to write down bad loans and focus on healthier companies.

“These zombie loans are just bad for the economy,” said Viral V. Acharya, one of the report’s authors and a specialist in European debt at New York University’s Stern School of Business. “The problem is that Europe never injected capital into its banks like TARP in the U.S.”

Ceo-Deutsche Bank pleit voor koerswijziging ECB

De Europese Centrale Bank richt meer schade aan dan dat het goed doet en om te voorkomen dat de economie van de Eurozone implodeert, moet de ECB het roer omgooien. Hiervoor pleit John Cryan, ceo van Deutsche Bank, in het Handelsblatt. Met de kritiek sluit Cryan zich aan bij Rabobank-topman Wiebe Draijer, die vorige week aangaf dat het ECB-beleid niet doorwerkt in de economie. Ook Jens Weidmann, de president van de Duitse centrale bank, trok eerder al van leer tegen Draghi.

Negatieve depositorente

De kritiek van Cryan richt zich voornamelijk op de negatieve depositorente die de ECB rekent. Volgens hem kan het niet zo zijn dat de toezichthouder hogere buffers eisen van banken om het vervolgens te bestraffen. Dat de kritiek van Cryan zich juist tegen de strafrente van de ECB richt is niet vreemd, schrijft Handelsblatt. Deutsche Bank bevindt zich in een omvangrijke herstructurering en heeft moeite om het vertrouwen van investeerders terug te winnen. Door het ECB-beleid zijn de rente-inkomsten van banken sinds 2009 met 7% gedaald, wat de herstructurering van Deutsche Bank hindert.

Cryan is echter niet de enige die kritiek heeft op het rentebeleid van de ECB. De lage rentes die banken rekenen aan consumenten en de negatieve depositorente ondermijnen het verdienmodel van banken, zoals Wiebe Draijer vorige week verklaarde. Cryan wil daarom dat de ECB de rente verhoogt.

Vertrouwen verloren

In de bijdrage die hij aan Handelsblatt levert geeft Cryan aan het vertrouwen in de ECB verloren te hebben. Hij waarschuwt dat de gewenste effecten van het ECB-beleid uitblijven en zich een doemscenario ontwikkelt voor spaarders en gepensioneerden. ‘Ondernemers stellen, door de aanhoudende onzekerheid, investeringen uit en vragen nauwelijks meer leningen aan’, meldt het Handelsblatt.

Cryan erkent dat de ECB veel heeft gedaan om de situatie in Europa te stabiliseren, maar geeft aan dat de ECB nu tekortschiet. Hij is het eens met Draghi dat zonder ingrijpen van de ECB het gevaar op deflatie wezenlijk groter was geweest. Maar vindt dat de ECB te ver verwijderd is van het doel om deflatie af te wenden en de inflatie op te drijven naar bijna, maar net geen 2%. Door toch aan het beleid vast te houden ondermijnt de ECB het vertrouwen, zegt Cryan. Hij pleit daarom voor een koerswijziging.

Gebrek aan vertrouwen

De reden dat de strafrente die de ECB rekent niet het gewenste effect heeft, is het gebrek aan vertrouwen van banken en consumenten. Mensen leggen meer geld opzij voor hun pensioen en gaan liever de hypotheek aflossen dan een nieuwe afsluiten. ‘In plaats van de investeringsgolf, waar de ECB op hoopt, neemt de onzekerheid in de Eurozone juist toe door de buitensporige hoeveelheid geld die de ECB direct in de markt pompt’, zegt Georg Fahrenschon, president van de Duitse vereniging van spaarbanken.

Banks are preparing for an ‘economic nuclear winter’

Video : Banks get ready for 'economic nuclear winter'

Monday, 29 Aug 2016 | 7:30 AM ET | 00:39

The first half of 2016 has been a roller-coaster for financial markets. A combination of uncertainties surrounding the U.K.'s vote to leave the European Union and weaker-than-expected corporate earnings results across the region means a tough second half looms.

European banks, in particular, have had a very tough six months as the shock and volatility around Brexit sent banking stocks south. Major European banks like Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse saw their shares in free-fall after the referendum's results were announced. In the U.K., RBS was the worst-hit, with its shares plunging by more than 30 percent since June 24.

The current uncertainty over when the U.K. will start the process of quitting the EU has banks on tenterhooks. But a source told CNBC that banks are "preparing for an economic nuclear winter situation."

Speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the topic, a source from a major investment bank told CNBC that financial services firms have put together a strategy in place that takes into account the worst-case scenario that could happen by the end of this year.

"This could mean triggering Article 50, referendum in other European nations leading to a break-up of the euro or sterling hitting below $1.20 or lower. The banks are ready for anything now," the source said.

The source further explained that the challenge in 2016 is nothing compared to when the Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008 and the banking sector is this time a lot more resilient. "Markets hate uncertainty and the events this year have unfortunately created a lot of mystery around what is going to happen next."

Meanwhile, a common theme across second-quarter results has been a warning of uncertain times ahead. From big investment banks to mining firms like BHP Billiton and Glencore to the auto sector, companies have cited uncertainty and volatility in markets as a reason for weak results and have warned that the second half will be challenging.



An American tourist stands near the Houses of Parliament the day after the majority of the British public voted to leave the European Union on June 25, 2016 in London, England.

Following that, a number of banks have cut their exposure to equities due to the volatile nature of stocks in the first half the year. Earlier this month, Goldman Sachs downgraded stocks to "underweight" as part of its 3-month asset allocation citing global equities to be at the upper end of their "fat and flat range."

"The second half of the year is going to be very challenging for U.K. corporates," Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA told CNBC via email. "Not only are they contending with possible recession in the U.K. and more prolonged slowdown, the uncertainty factor surrounding Brexit leaves planning for the future a very difficult task."

Erlam further explained that a number of companies won't know for a while what the future of their operations in the U.K. will look like.

"I imagine many are already putting plans in place for moving operations abroad should the U.K. lose access to the single market. With companies less likely to invest and recession very possible, the second half of the year isn't looking great, particularly for those companies with greater exposure to the UK."

But while challenges continue to loom, some analysts have said it was important for companies to get on with their business.

"I think the main problem for the second half of the year is the uncertainty caused by Brexit, though that's likely to persist for two years or more, so I suspect companies are likely to roll up their sleeves and get on with their business," Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown told CNBC via email.

Khaif explained that the challenges will remain but it is important for industries like banking for instance to focus on maintaining their solvency ratios and "de-risking and simplifying their businesses."

TICKING FINANCIAL TIME BOMB? Deutsche Bank 'refuses' customer demands for gold withdrawals

DEUTSCHE BANK is 'refusing' to hand its OWN customers gold they have purchased through an investment venture.



Germany's biggest bank has been accused of breaking the terms of bond sales by financial experts.

The trouble-hit bank is reportedly currently contemplating a merger with Germany's other mega-bank, Commerzbank.

Clients who have invested in the exchange-traded commodity "Xetra-Gold" have said they are having problems with the bank, according to German analytic website Godmode-Trader.

Xetra-Gold is a bond on the Deutsche Börse commodities market, and Deutsche Bank is a designated sponsor.



When purchasing the commodity in the virtual sphere, customers are told for every scrap of the precious metal they buy, the same amount of physical gold exists.

On the website, Xetra-Gold says its clients have the right for physical delivery of the gold when they please.

But customers have said they have asked for it - and have been denied by Deutsche Bank.

The physical gold is reportedly held in custody for the issuer in the Frankfurt vaults of Clearstream Banking AG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Börse.

On its website, Xetra-Gold states: "In order to facilitate the delivery of physical gold, the issuer holds a further limited amount of gold on an unallocated weight account with Umicore AG & Co."

Godmode Trader quoted a German who “sought physical delivery of his holdings of Xetra-Gold".

It stated: "For this he approached, as instructed by the German Börse document, his principal bank, Deutsche Bank."

However, he was told that “the service” was no longer available for "reasons of business policy".

It is not yet clear whether other banks are still delivering gold through Xetra.

Xetra-Gold, which claims to manage assets of £2.95billion says its holdings amount to over 85 tonnes of gold.

It states: “At the same time, the number of deliveries of physical gold has risen to nearly 900, at a total volume of over four tonnes".

According to the World Gold Council, Germany has the world's second largest gold reserves at 3,381 metric tonnes.

Recently, the government was hit by public backlash for keeping most of the country's gold reserves abroad.

The news will spark more fears over the German economy as the country's biggest bank has this year faced plunging share prices and thousands of job cuts.

Earlier this year Wolfgang Schaeuble, Germany's Finance Minister, claimed he had "no concerns" about Deutsche Bank's share prices.

And co-CEO John Cryan insisted: "Deutsche Bank remains absolutely rock-solid, given our strong capital and risk position."

But financial expert Max Keiser has poured cold water on their claims, saying the bank is "technically insolvent" and runs a "ponzi scheme".

Speaking on Russia Today's Keiser Report, he added: "The bank needs to go out of business, because they are not solvent.

"But politicians, including Schaeuble, allow for financial engineering products to come onto the market that mask insolvency.

"It's dead, it's insolvent, the bank is dead... This is a dead bank walking."

The majority of Germany's gold held in country is being stored in Frankfurt.



In December 2015 there were reserves of 1,402.5 metric tonnes.

The Deutsche Bundesbank reports it still holds more than 1,347 metric tonnes of gold in New York, 434.7 metric tonnes in London and more than 196 metric tonnes in Paris.

Germany has repatriated more than 177 metric tonnes from Paris, and about 189 metric tonnes from New York.

Topman Italiaanse bank Monte Paschi vertrekt

Gepubliceerd: 08 september 2016 20:47 Laatste update: 08 september 2016 20:47

De topman van de Italiaanse bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena heeft zijn vertrek aangekondigd. De bank verkeert in financiële moeilijkheden en werkt momenteel aan plannen om de balans te versterken.

Bestuursvoorzitter Fabrizio Viola blijft nog aan tot een opvolger is gevonden, werd donderdag gemeld. Er moet op korte termijn een vervanger worden benoemd.

Viola kwam in 2012 aan het roer te staan bij Monte dei Paschi met als doel de financiën op orde te krijgen. De bank heeft te maken met een enorme hoeveelheid slechte leningen.

Om er weer bovenop te komen, wil de op twee na grootste bank van Italië 5 miljard euro nieuw kapitaal ophalen en voor 30 miljard euro aan slechte leningen gaan verkopen.
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Ben benieuwd naar Q3. Hij heeft niet kunnen herstructureren in 4 jr tijd zoveel is wel duidelijk,.