organized bank default. Only a matter of time."

M

monagt

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"Irish banks are defaulting everywhere now by buying old bonds back at big discounts, so the principle of default has obviously been breached. Clearly, this leads the way for the big one, which is an organized bank default. Only a matter of time."

http://www.facebook.com/davidmcw

What are the implications for Deposits, Loans , etc??

M
 
monagt said:
"Irish banks are defaulting everywhere now by buying old bonds back at big discounts, so the principle of default has obviously been breached. Clearly, this leads the way for the big one, which is an organized bank default. Only a matter of time."
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Irish banks are not defaulting by doing this, it is common practice for all companies to enter the market and by back their bonds when they are trading at less than face value, in fact many companies even issue new bonds at lower rates in order to redeem older bonds, in order to save money.

By doing this Irish banks will reduce their capital requirements and the amount of bail out funds that they will require. This is the correct and prudent thing to do.

Jim.
 
monagt said:
Good reply Jim but is McWilliams wrong??
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I've always considered McWilliams as light entertainment, not to be taken too seriously, esp. now that he is running for election!

The reality is that the more debt the banks can buy back at a discount the better for the country, so keeping things shaky could actually be in our own interest as it will encourage the bondholders to dump the bonds at discount rates.

For all practical purposes the banks are nationalized and with the IMF & ECB in the background it is hard to imagine a situation where some kind of wholesale default would occur....

I can't help but feel that this coming election will result in a very silly Dail, where nothing gets done and we'll end up having a second election very quickly after wards, perhaps even at the direction of the IMF. I think the time line does not allow for the kind of debate that would lead to a solid parliament.

As regards savings and deposits, I believe the rules have not changed at all: you can't avoid financial risk totally, but you can reduce it by diversification - don't put it all in one place, even consider foreign travellers cheques and money market funds as an alternative to banks.

Good luck with that,

Jim.
 
Jim is correct, what Irish banks are doing is buying up their own bonds at a discount on the open market. They are not going to the owners of maturing bonds and telling them they will not get the full amount back. Only such an action would fall into the realms of default.
 
Interesting article in today's Irish Times by Arthur Beesley.

ECONOMISTS NOURIEL Roubini and Ken Rogoff, two of the most prominent academic commentators on the financial crisis, said the Government should compel senior bondholders to bear some of the cost of rescuing Ireland’s banks
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Dr Roubini (nicknamed Dr Doom for being one of the 1st to predict the crisis) says:


Dr Rogoff adds:


However, he said it will be difficult for Ireland to avoid some form of debt restructuring. Asked if he was referring to sovereign or bank debt, he said “I’m afraid it might be the sovereign debt”, since the sovereign had guaranteed bank debt.


“It’s not reasonable to say that senior bank bondholders should get bailed out and I think it undermines the whole sense of justice, the whole social fabric in Ireland and elsewhere to have these massive bailouts,” he said.
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Agree totally with these gentlemen.
 
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And exactly where are they getting this money to buy them back ? Are they drawing it down from the ECB/IMF loan or is it coming from assets sold to NAMA ? Because either way it seems to be coming from the taxpayer. Or is it somewhere else ?
 
GoMayoGo said:
And exactly where are they getting this money to buy them back ? Are they drawing it down from the ECB/IMF loan or is it coming from assets sold to NAMA ? Because either way it seems to be coming from the taxpayer. Or is it somewhere else ?
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I would say mainly from the funds directly received from the government, who are getting it from the EU bail out fund and therefore the taxpayer is ultimately underwriting and paying for it. While the actions of the banks are improving their liabilities, I think this is merely a drop in the ocean. It is also totally wrong that this is being done at the expense of the taxpayer.
 
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that there will be an orderly restructure (which some would call a default) of sovereign and bank debt across Europe at some point in the next two years, managed centrally by Frankfurt and Brussels

You can listen to all the well reasoned, sensible arguments from economists whose opinions should be respected, but all these arguments are trumped by the fact that the numbers dont add up, and are so far from doing so that the situation across the Eurozone is completely unsustainable.

Buying back debt is just snipping away at the edges of the problem - cannot be done in large enough quantities to make a material dent in the overall debt burden.

People are daft to suggest that Ireland should burn bondholders or restructure on its own, thereby becoming a pariah. We would get crucified by the markets, and there is no way out given that we cant devalue. So we should wait for the pan European solution to this and go with the crowd
 
steviel said:
Buying back debt is just snipping away at the edges of the problem - cannot be done in large enough quantities to make a material dent in the overall debt burden.
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Why not? If the funds are made available to buy back these bonds at a reasonable reduced rate isn't it wise to do so rather than go down the road of a declared default ? Or are you guys here just talking about the subordinated debt and not senior bonds ?
 

I would be in favour of this happening if the banks were doing it with their own money. All that is happening now is that taxpayer guaranteed funds are being used (to borrow steviel's term) in order to be "snipping away at the edges of the problem", which will not solve the overall problem. All this is doing is funneling more money through to bond holders (senior or subordinate) who should be taking not just a hair cut but an amputation on their investments.
 
Chris said:
All this is doing is funneling more money through to bond holders (senior or subordinate) who should be taking not just a hair cut but an amputation on their investments.
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Do you know who the bond holders are??? From the details I've seen, I believe the majority are pension funds, local and regional banks and credit union type organisations across Europe, do you seriously believe that the average workers and pensioners of Europe should take responsibility for Ireland's mess, or for that matter that their governments will allow it to happen, with out a fight????

One of the main reasons why the EU governments were so quick to provide financing for the bail out is because it is in their own best interests to do so.

Jim.
 

I fully agree with you that it won't happen without other € members putting up a fight, but the bottom line is that Ireland as a country cannot and should not repay the debt of private banks, at least not in full.
Yes, people will get stung, but it is not the case that there are pension funds who are only invested in Irish bonds and that people will large amounts of their wealth. I would imagine that, given the size of Ireland, the exposure of individual pension funds is quite small. Another advantage of partial default is that bond holders in future will take a closer look at what Irish banks are doing with the money, and if it is deemed risky then higher coupon rates will be demanded. This will keep a check on the risks taken by banks, which has been pretty much absent.
 

Most of it is not Ireland's mess, it's the private bank's mess.
 
Buiter: [broken link removed]

Sovereign defaults will happen in Ireland and Greece & EU funds so far have only delayed the inevitable

But how will the Irish Sovereign defaults affect a person directly or their savings accounts - anyone ????
 
"What are the implications for Deposits, Loans , etc??"

I'd imagine that's what most people on AAM would like to know. On another thread a contributor made the point that there's no distinction between bondholders and depositors. What I'd like to know: does it make a whit of difference in the event of a default whether your money is in an Irish bank or in an Irish subsidiary of a foreign owned bank?
 
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