Top Economics News

French banks fear that the project of President Francois Hollande to reform regulated savings in France deny them a windfall of cheap liquidity, while debt crisis in the euro area again threatens the ability of banks to refinance themselves on the European markets.

The new head of state, who voted in favor of a pact to support growth of the Agreement on budgetary discipline approved by 25 of the 27 countries of the European Union, wants to mobilize savings of the French to strengthen financial leeway of the state for housing and corporate finance. 

His presidential program provided including a doubling of the ceiling of Booklet A and Booklet Sustainable Development (LDD), currently limited to 15,300 euros respectively and 6,000 euros. They are currently paid at a rate of 2.25%.

Francois Hollande hopes to encourage the creation of new social housing and transform the LDD in "savings book industry" dedicated to SME financing and business innovation.

If investors can not appreciate these reforms, credit institutions such as BNP Paribas and Societe Generale may see whole areas of savings leave their record to head the Caisse des Depots (CDC) that centralizes regulated savings in France.

According to Pascal Decque, an analyst at Cheuvreux, some 83 billion euros of savings could then migrate to the CDC. 

Such a transfer would be another blow to banks

French who have already lost 90 billion euros of deposits last year due to concerns of investors about banks' exposure to Greece and the financial crisis.

"You have liquidity pressures in all sectors for French banks," said Andrew Lim, an analyst at Espirito Santo. The program of Francois Hollande "will put pressure on the deposit market."

Societe Generale has declined to comment on the subject while at BNP Paribas messages left unanswered.

NON-DISCLOSURE OF BANKERS

This regulated savings, which comes mainly from the Booklet A, is collected by the banking networks and centralized at the CDC in exchange for a commission paid to banks. The funds raised finance housing projects, infrastructure and other public projects.

According to statistics from the CDC, the outstanding book A and the LDD reached 295.1 billion euros at end-March.

Leaders of French banks, already reluctant to the idea of ​​a banking reform that would isolate the activities according to their usefulness or not the economy, principal concern is that beyond the housing market deposits and the financing of major projects is entrusted to a public bank.

"Liquidity is our raw material, (Reform Booklet A, Ed) does not help us," said May 10 Perol President BPCE (People's Bank, Savings Bank), parent company of Natixis, radio BFM Business. "It's weird to send money to the Deposit which has no bank branch when there are French banks have 40,000 branches."

"French banks (…) have employees willing to work and to make loans to businesses that need," he added.

The CDC is well mobilized, through its infrastructure fund and Axa Private Equity and Vinci, to fund future high-speed line (HSL) between Tours and Bordeaux, an investment of more than seven billion euros.

"Is it necessary to finance SMEs by the CDC and insurers?" Plague a Parisian banker who requested anonymity. "With Francois Hollande, there is the return to France with the idea that the state does better. This is an old French fantasy. "

Reform of regulated savings" will destabilize the banks, "he says

. While many observers believe that with the new Basel III prudential banks can no longer finance long-term projects, some believe, however, that the state will not only fulfill these investments

. "The challenges of financing long-term investments can not be met if we depend only of a public actor, "says Gerard de la Martiniere, former president of the Federation of French society ; s insurance (FFSA)

.

If you have bad credit, you may have problems getting a loan from these places, or they may charge you such a high rate of interest it is not worth it. Instead, consider your other options, such as a cash loan from a payday loan company.

JPMorgan has been the subject of Wednesday two lawsuits from some of its shareholders, who accused the bank and its executives for taking excessive risks that led to trading losses of at least two billion announced last week.

A spokesman for JPMorgan Chase declined to comment on these two complaints that were filed in federal court in Manhattan.

Barclays Bank has sold its retail banking operations in France, Les Echos reported in its Tuesday edition.

The newspaper announced on its front page "A" that the British group does want to keep in the Hexagon as their operations to large corporations.

It indicates that the Postal Bank and the HSBC Group "could bid".

No one was contacted Monday evening with the French bank for comment.

Lloyds has surprised investors by announcing Tuesday a 36% reduction of its bad debts and a quarterly profit after the loss of 3.5 billion pounds (4.3 billion) realized a year ago.

At midday, the action of the British bank and advanced 2.32% to 31.73 pence while the FTSE 100 London Stock Exchange, the only open in Europe in May 1 , gained 0.24%.

The UK bank has yet announced that it had a fresh supply of 375 million pounds (459 million) in its accounts for the first quarter to cover the reimbursement of customers who potentially overpaid for certain insurance policies. 

Lloyds 40% owned by the State since the 2008 financial crisis, said the increase in provisions in the case of insurance policies had been decided e given the increasing volume of complaints received, echoing comments made by Barclays last week about it.

Last year, Lloyds had already funded £ 3.2 billion for the same reasons.

The group also said that the sale of 632 programmed agencies made little progress, while being pessimistic about the UK economy, fallout recession in the first quarter.

"We think the economy will stagnate this year but it will be a long and difficult recovery. We anticipate a resumption of growth in 2013 and a peak in unemployment of almost 9% early next year, "said Antonio Horta-Osorio, Director General ; ral

. Lloyds bank has cleared the first three months of a taxable income Statutory 288 million pounds over the period, against 316 million the previous quarter

. The largest British settlement in terms of customers reported a level of bad debts to 1.7 billion pounds

.

The Eramet Group, whose sales fell 10% in the first quarter, said Thursday that operating profit in the first half should be lower than the first half 2012 due to the falling price of nickel and manganese.

The turnover of the mining group totaled 877 million euros in Q1 2012 against 973 million a year earlier (-7% at constant perimeter.)

The decline is 20% in the activity of manganese and nickel in 13% compared to first quarter 2011, while world production of stainless steel fell by around 3%. 

"As previously announced, average prices of nickel and manganese are the beginning of the year at levels below the current average of 2011 ", said in a statement the group, who still expects an increase of its turnover in the second quarter compared to first quarter 2012.

Apple announced Tuesday the results well above expectations, thanks to strong demand for its iPhone and iPad, numbers that advance the action of the American group of more than 7% in exchange for after-hours trading.

The first global stock market capitalization has reported earnings per share for the second quarter of 2011-2012 and $ 12.30 a turnover of 39.2 billion.

Financial analysts had expected, respectively 10.04 and 36.82 billion dollars, according to Thomson Reuters consensus I / B / E / S.

Apple said it sold 35.1 million iPhones in the period, an increase of 88% from a year ago. Analysts had expected about 30 million deliveries.

"The iPhone sales have exploded internationally," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, during an interview with Reuters.

The number of elapsed iPad is 11.8 million, an increase of 151% over the second quarter of 2010-2011.

For the third quarter, said the group anticipates earnings per share of about 8.68 dollars and an annual turnover of about $ 34 billion, against expectations of 9.93 dollars and 37 respectively , 45 billion, according to Thomson Reuters consensus I / B / E / S.

Gross margin for the second quarter stood at 47.7% against 41.4% a year ago. 

"The margin is very high, which means that concerns about subsidies, price pressures were exaggerated. This shows that the group of flexibility on price, not only among consumers but also among operators, "said Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee.

The way Apple had finished down by 1.99% to 560.28 dollars, due to movement of profit taking at work for several sessions.

The action group is more than up some 39% since the beginning of the year, against an advance of nearly 60% earlier this month.

European shares closed sharply lower Friday, weakened by the tensions of the Spanish sovereign debt and growth of Chinese considered disappointing first quarter.

In Paris the CAC 40 lost 2.47% to 3,189.09 points, regaining its level of more than two months.

For the week, shortened because of Easter Monday, the index lost 3.94%.

The decline was accentuated in the afternoon after an indicator of U.S. consumer sentiment slightly below expectations and statements of Klaas Knot, member of the Board of Governors of the European Central Bank, hoping to avoid having to resort to new purchases of government securities. 

"After rising yesterday as investors returned to the real problems of the Spanish debt. Klaas Knot's statements have put water on the fire," said Pierre Barral, portfolio manager at Convictions AM.

Klaas Knot, at a conference in Amsterdam, said:

"The instrument has not been used for a long time but it exists. I'm glad it was not used, I hope we will never to use it. "

"I do not think we are approaching the precipice, I think the markets have overreacted a little" (for Spain).

The London Stock Exchange yielded 1.03%, 2.36% Frankfurt, Milan and Madrid 3.43% 3.58%. Of the European indices, the Euro Stoxx 50 lost 2.58% and 1.63% Eurofirst 300.

Bank stocks and cyclicals suffered the largest declines sector in Europe, with a loss of 3% for the bank and 2.6% for cars.

The euro a little more resistant than shares and lost 0.8% against the greenback around 1.3080 dollar.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange ended down 0.53% Thursday, limiting its losses in the wake of the sharp drop on Wall Street and European markets.

The Nikkei fell 52.38 points to 9,767.61 points after touching a low four-week session and the Topix broader point yielded 2.79 points (-0.33%) to 832.57 points.

Toshiba has closed up 1.73%. The world number two flash memories is considering an alliance with South Korea's SK Hynix Semiconductor to buy Elpida Memory, according to the Nikkei newspaper.

Values ​​have been car clearances, leaving Toyota and Honda Motor 0.72% 1.13%.

Arnaud Lagardère, General Partner of Lagardère, has made further sales of shares of media group for a little over 1.7 million, after have recently sold for eight million shares.

According to advice published by the Financial Markets Authority (AMF), new assignments were made on 19 and 20 March for a total of 74,247 titles.

Arnaud Lagardère had already sold 346,653 shares between March 16 and 12, or 0.26% of the capital.

The group had indicated that these transactions were within the framework of the "unwinding of a financing package set up by BNP Paribas in 2004 to mark the settlement of the estate of his father and under the relevant contract. "

Health spending should not increase by more than 2.9% last year. The target was held and even beyond. But if the city manages to medicine to save money, it's more difficult for the hospital. But the effort required for 2012 has been strengthened.

Good news. The national target of expenditure (ONDAM), indicator of the health expenditure control, was observed in 2011, for the second consecutive year. Savings have been achieved even, mainly due to the general practice.

"Under 2011, spending will be well below 330 million euros to the goal voted by Parliament. Specifically, spending on care city will be less than 300 million," said a joint statement ministries Budget , Health and Solidarity.

The hospital sector is more difficult to roll back its spending. "For their part, hospital expenditures do not exceed, after setting aside prudential funds, the authority of Parliament," the statement said, meaning that the ONDAM hospital has been held that using a gel certain appropriations provided by the state, primarily for public hospitals, for most of 2011.

The deficit of public and private non-profit improves slightly (0.8%) in 2011: 504 million euros against 508 million in 2010. For teaching hospitals (CHU), the largest public hospitals, the overall deficit improved by 15 to 329.4 million. Nicolas Sarkozy had hoped in 2007 a return to balanced operating accounts in public hospitals for 2012.

For the three departments 'performance' of 2011 "bodes well for the respect of ONDAM in 2012, for the third consecutive year." The goal for this year was, however hardened, precision required, and will be more difficult to hold, with a projected increase of 2.5% against 2.9% in 2010 and 2011.

The CSMF reacted to the government announcement stressed again that the bulk of the savings was realized by the general practice. "Beyond compliance ONDAM general ONDAM care is respected city for four consecutive years" and in 2011, savings totaled 612 million, "62 million more than expected," says union in a statement. He took the opportunity to claim back a "rebalancing" budget for the care of town. For 2012, the rising cost of ambulatory care was limited to 2.1% against 2.6% for hospital costs.