Europe to Recapitalize Banks Without Raising any Capital; Berlusconi Defiant as Focus Shifts to Italy; Sarkozy Under Fire for Seeking China’s Help

 

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi denies entering an agreement for early elections and arrogantly insists he is the only one who can possibly save Italy from itself.

Berlusconi ruled out early elections and said the current legislature in Rome will last until 2013, according to an interview published yesterday in Corriere della Sera.
“Only I and my government can achieve this reform program for 18 months, which is why there is no way for me to stand aside,” the Italian leader told the newspaper.

Sarkozy Under Fire for Seeking China’s Help
Please consider Sarkozy Criticized for Seeking China’s Help

French President Nicolas Sarkozy came under fire from opposition leaders for seeking China’s help to resolve the euro area’s debt crisis.
“It’s shocking,” Martine Aubry, the general secretary of the Socialist Party, said in the Sunday newspaper, Journal du Dimanche. “The Europeans, by turning to the Chinese, are showing their weakness. How will Europe be able to ask China to stop undervaluing its currency or to accept reciprocal commercial accords?”
Sarkozy reached out last week to his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao to build support for an enlarged rescue fund designed to solve the region’s sovereign-debt crisis. The leaders talked just hours after a euro-region summit on Oct. 27 ended with an agreement to boost the European Financial Stability Facility to about 1 trillion euros ($1.4 trillion), leveraging existing guarantees by as much as five times.

Financial Suicide
Aubry asks "How will Europe be able to ask China to stop undervaluing its currency?" That's a good question for Sarkozy but a far better one for Klaus Regling, head of the European Financial Stability Facility who says "Bailout Fund Could One Day Issue Bonds in Yuan".
Then again, there is a fundamental question as to whether the Yuan is really undervalued in the first place. However, issuing bonds in Yuan would be financial suicide if per chance the masses are correct or if the timing was wrong.
Moreover, begging for help is a big sign of weakness as well as an admission of fear that no other buyers may step up to the plate.
Europe to Recapitalize Banks Without Raising any Capital
Bloomberg reports Europe Tries to Recapitalize Its Banks Without Injecting Capital

European Union leaders ordered banks last week to increase the ratio of “highest quality” capital they hold by the end of June, creating a shortfall of 106 billion euros ($150 billion). Of Europe’s 28 largest lenders, only eight will need to raise a total of 11 billion euros from investors, Huw Van Steenis, a Morgan Stanley analyst, wrote in an Oct. 28 report.
Rather than tapping investors or governments, firms are trying to hit the 9 percent core capital target by adjusting risk-weightings, limiting dividends, retaining earnings, reducing loans and selling assets. Banks had threatened to curb lending, risking a recession, to meet the goal rather than take government aid that would bring limits on bonuses and dividends. EU leaders already are pressing banks to restrain payments to employees and shareholders until they meet the capital target.
“Surely, no one thinks that by allowing banks to avoid raising capital in all these various ways it’s going to give investors more confidence,” said Peter Hahn, a professor of finance at London’s Cass Business School and a former managing director at New York-based Citigroup Inc. “Part of the issue for a long time has been the lack of credibility of bank balance sheets and their risk models. This isn’t going to help.”

Capital Math
Let's go over the math one more time as noted previously in Capital Shortfall Estimates of European Banks Range from 8 to 413 Billion Euros; EU to Offer Additional Extend-and-Pretend Time
Analyst Estimates

• Citigroup estimates there is a capital shortfall of between €64 billion and €216 billion for banks to achieve a minimum core Tier 1 ratio of 7% to 9%, respectively.
• Credit Suisse came up with a similar figure of €220 billion for the potential 9% scenario.
• Analysts at Espirito Santo said write-downs at current market prices on Greek, Portuguese, Irish, Italian and Spanish bonds, along with a higher minimum capital ratio of around 9%, could require as much as €413 billion in new capital across the sector.
• Merrill Lynch analysts in turn came up with estimates of between €7.6 billion and €143 billion in required capital for the region's major banks, depending on various scenarios.

The IMF came up with 200 billion Euros, a figure I think is exceptionally low because it ignores writedowns on Portuguese, Spanish, and Irish debt (and of course Italian debt as well). It also presumes Greek losses will be pegged at 50% when losses are likely to be in the 70-90% range.
Nonetheless, the agreement worked out by Merkel reduced that 200 billion euro figure down to 106 billion. Now we see that of that 106 billion euros, banks claim they need only raise 11 billion euros.
Is that before or after Merkel agreed to kick in an extra 21 billion euros of taxpayer money to the banking sector in the recent EFSF agreement?
Regardless, the answer to the question "How Does Europe Recapitalize Banks Without Raising any Capital?" should now be perfectly clear ...
Oh Ho Ho Its Magic!
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

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