European banks could distribute €109 billion in dividends and €62 billion through share buybacks. Five lenders face closer scrutiny over risk-weighting measures as regulatory reviews test capital-return expectations.
Isabel Schnabel’s early departure, Philip Lane’s term ending in May and uncertainty over exactly when Christine Lagarde will leave are creating a rare window for reshaping power at the European Central Bank. Paris, Berlin and Madrid are already positioning themselves, while political instability and the rise of radical and far-right parties across Europe add urgency to a succession battle that could determine the ECB’s direction for years.
Christine Lagarde is raising rates again to fight inflation increasingly driven by war and energy disruption. But interest rates cannot reopen the Strait of Hormuz or repair damaged pipelines. The danger is that Europe repeats the mistake of 2008 — fighting an external energy shock by squeezing its own economy into recession.
The ECB raised rates by 25 basis points but stopped short of declaring the tightening cycle over. The energy shock from the Middle East is reshaping the inflation outlook, while Frankfurt is using hawkish communication as a second tightening tool.
Η Ευρωπαϊκή Κεντρική Τράπεζα ανεβάζει τα επιτόκια κατά 25 μονάδες βάσης, καθώς το ενεργειακό σοκ από τη Μέση Ανατολή κρατά τον πληθωρισμό πολύ πάνω από τον στόχο. Στο 3% βλέπει πλέον τον πληθωρισμό το 2026, με την Ευρώπη να βρίσκεται ξανά ανάμεσα σε ακριβό χρήμα και ασθενή ανάπτυξη.
From Hormuz and Ukraine to Taiwan and cyberattacks, 110 banks designed their own crisis scenarios — but Frankfurt found overly optimistic assumptions exactly where a geopolitical shock could turn into a funding crisis
Central bank money on distributed ledgers marks a strategic bid to defend the euro in a tokenised world
While other EU nations back men, Athens pushes a female candidate with unmatched credentials
Frankfurt refuses to underwrite emergency liquidity, warning the scheme breaches EU law and risks “monetary financing”.
EU reparations loan for Ukraine faces legal, financial, and political hurdles as member states push back.
Speculation grows over Christine Lagarde’s successor at the European Central Bank, with potential French and Greek connections shaping the conversation.
The European Central Bank is expected to approve a request by Greek banks to resume the payment of dividends after 16 years, four bankers told Reuters on Wednesday, a further sign of the sector’s rebound.
A positive reversal was recorded after the end of the COVID pandemic lockdowns as Greek households witnessed a substantial rise in wealth to €798.8 billion in the 2nd quarter of 2023, with property largely accounting for the wealth uptick
Referring to the Greek economy and Greek state bonds in particular, the ECB's president noted that these were now eligible to participate in ECB's repurchase programmes - which have been frozen - with the exception of the PEP programme in which Greek bonds participated already. The board meeting did not discuss the future of the programme, she noted.
From 2008 to 2016, the ECB head said, Greece's GDP shrank by over a quarter, unemployment rose by 20 percentage points at its apex, and catastrophe hit again with the coronavirus pandemic just as the economy was starting to recover and reforms give results. Greece has been at the forefront of global challenges that Europe faces, including climate crisis and the migration crisis, she also added.
This comes from a European Central Bank survey of European citizens’ payment trends, according to which cash – although in decline due to the spread of electronic transactions – is still the eurozone’s dominant means of payment.
