Walking the walk: Draghi delivers QE

27 January 2015
Knowledge Base

With the launch of euro zone quantitative easing on January 22, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi hopes to have delivered on his pledge to do “whatever it takes” to safeguard the region’s prospects. It was not quite a design classic but it was a feat of engineering nevertheless. The quantitative easing programme unveiled by ECB President Mario Draghi on last Thursday was – save for a few missing components – a pretty impressive machine. Continue reading…

A shock from the Swiss Central Bank

25 January 2015
Knowledge Base

The Swiss National Bank recently scrapped its CHF/EUR currency peg in an unexpected move that roiled financial markets. Here, we explain what may have been behind the move and its implications. What did the Swiss National Bank do and what was the reaction in the financial markets ? The SNB abandoned the CHF’s exchange rate peg against the EUR, which had been set at EUR1.20 since September 2011. The CHF rallied sharply in response to the move, gaining as much as 40 per cent against the EUR at one point, and hitting its highest level against the USD in three years. Such volatility is extremely rare in G-10 currencies. Continue reading…

Delta Lloyd to sell German life business

17 January 2015

Delta Lloyd NV recently announced the sale of its German life business to Athene Holding Ltd. (“Athene”). Athene is a Bermuda-based insurance holding company and, through its subsidiaries, is a leading provider of products in the retirement savings market in the USA. In 2010, Delta Lloyd’s German life business stopped selling new business and has since been in run-off.

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Bruno Colmant

Bruno Colmant

Head of Macro Research Bank Degroof Petercam

DEFLATION AND LOW INTEREST RATES: A THREAT TO THE BANKS

11 January 2015

The real danger lying in wait for the commercial banks is the low level of interest rates which, combined with risk limitation requirements, curbs their potential profitability. Moreover, the banks are facing major operational challenges, as they have to bear the operating costs of two retail channels (physical and digital) at a time of recession.

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Lithuania and the euro

01 January 2015

The euro entered circulation in Lithuania today, bringing the number of European Union (EU) Member States using the single European currency to 19. “On behalf of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank, I welcome this further enlargement of the euro area. Lithuania has taken exceptional measures in difficult times to reach its goal of joining the single currency,” Mario Draghi, President of the ECB, said.

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Revisions to the Standardised Approach for credit risk

24 December 2014

The Basel Committee is considering replacing references to external ratings, as used in the current standardised approach, with a limited number of risk drivers that provide a meaningful differentiation for risk. These alternative risk drivers vary based on the particular type of exposure and have been selected on the basis that they are simple, intuitive, readily available and capable of explaining risk across jurisdictions. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has released recently a consultative document on Revisions to the Standardised Approach for credit risk.

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