Mercado de Liquidez colapsado

FT: Los bancos, asfixiados, piden cada vez más dinero al BCE, 250 mm en una semana. El mercado interbancario no ha estado tan enrarecido desde la crisis de Lehman en 2008. Los bancos no consiguen equilibrar sus balances, y la caída de la deuda les encarece el crédito, lo que a su vez les obliga a vender los bonos.

The ECB is becoming an increasingly important source of funding for eurozone banks as the sovereign debt crisis has deepened with banks borrowing €247bn from the central bank on Tuesday, an increase of €17bn from the previous week and up €52bn compared with two weeks ago. The number of banks participating in the tender also rose, from 161 a week ago to 178 on Tuesday.

 A worry in the markets is that, despite the access to ECB liquidity facilities, banks still may not be able to repair their balance sheets. With possible further sovereign and bank downgrades to come, more banks may find they are being shut out of the private markets.

“It is a vicious cycle. Sovereign yields rise, leading to government and bank downgrades, which closes the market further to financial institutions, which then do not have the balance sheet to buy sovereign bonds,” said one trader at a European bank.

If sovereign and banking stresses continued, “we will be looking at what will surely be a catastrophic, historically low level of senior unsecured issuance level for 2012”, Suki Mann, SocGen credit strategist, told clients. “That means deleveraging, the ECB, retail deposits and private placements will bear a higher burden than they ever have.”