France and Italy stand by to bail out biggest banks as euro crisis worsens

By Simon Watkins and Dan Atkins

Last updated at 11:46 PM on 6th August 2011

 

 

Fears are growing this weekend that two of Europe’s largest banks may require a bailout, having been hugely damaged by the worsening crisis across the eurozone.

In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy is having to confront the possibility that the country’s second-biggest bank, Societe Generale -commonly known as SocGen - is on the brink of disaster after huge losses over loans made to Greece.

The chilling possibility of the largest bank in Italy, UniCredit Banca, suffering a similar collapse if a bailout is not implemented comes as Silvio Berlusconi already faces an increasingly dangerous national economic situation.

Going down: A news ticker in New York's Times Square spells out America's loss of its triple-A credit rating

Going down: A news ticker in New York's Times Square spells out America's loss of its triple-A credit rating

In Britain, a senior Government source described the position of the two banks as ‘perilous’, although an official Treasury spokesman declined to comment. Should either bank collapse, British customers with deposits of up to about £85,000 would be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

 

 

As ministers of the G7 nations - Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, the U.S. and Canada - prepare to meet to discuss the mounting euro crisis, the French and Italian governments are believed to be standing ready to rescue the banking giants.

But it is thought the mechanisms they have in place to rescue financial institutions are less developed than those in Britain, which was far worse affected by the credit crunch in 2008 and as a result put in place fuller contingency plans.

Crunch talks: Chancellor George Osborne was due to meet with IMF chief Christine Lagarde

Crunch talks: Chancellor George Osborne was due to meet with IMF chief Christine Lagarde

The merest hint a major bank might fall is likely to reignite panic tomorrow in the stock market, which is already feared to react badly to the credit downgrade of the U.S. by rating agency Standard & Poor’s.

Last night Chancellor George Osborne, whose Treasury officials have ‘war-gamed’ various scenarios ahead of the markets opening, was due to discuss the crisis with Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

SocGen reported a loss of £350million on Greek debt last week. It has a total of £2.2billion of Greek debt and also owns 88 per cent of the Greek bank Geniki, whose value has collapsed in recent months.

For Italy, damage to UniCredit, in which Barclays has a two per cent share, would be a bitter blow. Its strategy of caution has led it to invest heavily in Italian government bonds which were until recently seen as safe, but as these have come under pressure the bank’s shares have plummeted.

Experts fear that if any single bank is seen to be in trouble, all lending could freeze up in the resultant climate of fear, with devastating consequences. It was a similar situation which led to the run on Northern Rock in 2007 that required a Government bailout. The European Central Bank has already reported banks unwilling to trust each other with overnight funds.

David Cameron last night broke off from his holiday in Tuscany to talk to President Sarkozy about the crisis in the markets.

News of the planned talks emerged as Business Secretary Vince Cable appeared to back calls from China for the dollar to be eventually replaced as the main global reserve currency by a new international currency unit to be based around the IMF.

 

More here:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023302/France-Italy-stand-...

Views: 101

Comment

You need to be a member of 12160 Social Network to add comments!

Join 12160 Social Network

"Destroying the New World Order"

TOP CONTENT THIS WEEK

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE SITE!

mobile page

12160.info/m

12160 Administrators

 

Latest Activity

WIllow is now a member of 12160 Social Network
2 hours ago
Burbia commented on Less Prone's video
Thumbnail

Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans - Outrage AI Parody Song

"Props to Schottenstein on his foray out of the woods that was DEI and wokeness. "
2 hours ago
Burbia replied to Sandy's discussion Sick sci-fi sex fantasy written by Epstein's first benefactor people say inspired his twisted island... before author's SON ended up arresting him
"One of the theories floating around was Hilary Clinton's brother Hugh, was the one…"
2 hours ago
Sandy posted a discussion
4 hours ago
Doc Vega posted blog posts
11 hours ago
Sandy posted a video

EPSTEIN MAXWELL HIDDEN DOCUMENTARY

Real Time Intel Exclusively On Telegram t.me/brainwashed444
14 hours ago
Less Prone favorited Sandy's video
17 hours ago
Less Prone favorited tjdavis's video
18 hours ago
Less Prone posted a video

Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans - Outrage AI Parody Song

AI Parody Music Video poking fun at the online hysteria surrounding Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle jeans campaign.✅ Blue jeans✅ Blonde panic✅ DEI gone wild✅...
18 hours ago
tjdavis posted a video

How "Free" P*rn Sites Really Work (and Who Runs Them)

Excerpt from This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #559 Laila MickelwaitFull Episode: https://youtu.be/9J7187j4PO4?si=2GUNymssKJpe6nEvFind Theo Von:Website: https://...
yesterday
tjdavis posted a blog post
yesterday
Doc Vega posted blog posts
yesterday
Doc Vega commented on Ragnarok's video
Thumbnail

Charles Manson Talks About The Global Elite

"I've had my account with YouTube terminated before over bullshit excuses because they…"
yesterday
Doc Vega commented on Ragnarok's video
Thumbnail

Charles Manson Talks About The Global Elite

"Remember, though he makes his points, this man used the Beatles White Album as his own manifesto of…"
yesterday
Sandy posted videos
Monday
Sandy posted a photo
Monday
Sandy commented on Sandy's video
Sunday
Sandy posted a video
Sunday
cheeki kea posted a photo
Jul 30
Burbia posted a video

Strange Videos That Expose Something Massive

#disturbing #video #strange #scary #scaryvideos #strangevideos This is a compilation of the most disturbing videos on the internet, not only...
Jul 30

© 2025   Created by truth.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

content and site copyright 12160.info 2007-2019 - all rights reserved. unless otherwise noted