Reserve Bank of Australia. Financial Stability Review – September 2012

The euro area sovereign debt and banking crisis has continued to weigh on global financial conditions in the period since the previous Financial Stability Review. Although fears of a liquidity crisis in the euro area were generally assuaged earlier in the year following the European Central Bank's (ECB's) large-scale lending to banks, concerns about the resilience of sovereign and bank balance sheets in the region have persisted. Developments...

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Fall in repo contracts highlights banks’ dependency on ECB funds

The market for a key funding instrument for banks in Europe has shrunk, highlighting how reliant financial institutions in the region have become on European Central Bank support. The market for European repurchase – repo – transactions contracted by an estimated 14.2 per cent year-on-year in the six months to June 30, based on constant samples over the period.The total value of outstanding repo contracts – in which banks pledge their securities as collateral for short-term loans from money market funds or other investors – stood at €5.6bn in...

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Ex­Barclays trader probed over Rabobank links

A trader at the centre of ratemanipulation allegations levelled at Barclays communicated with counterparts at Rabobank, the Dutch bank, about trading positions related to Euribor, the Financial Times has learnt.Regulators are examining communications between Philippe Moryoussef, a senior euro swaps trader at Barclays until 2007, and Rabobank, according to people familiar with the investigation. The involvement of Rabobank, which until June was...

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