artikel Financial times d.d afgelopen maandag geeft e.e.a. goed weer:
HSH Nordbank, the world’s largest shipping lender, is seen by bankers in Germany as one of the most likely candidates to fail the tests. Senior executives at the Hamburg and Kiel-based lender said they were concerned about the hit that HSH would have to take on its shipping portfolio, following intensive discussions with ECB officials in recent weeks.
“One of the explicit aims of the comprehensive assessment is to create a level playing field between banks from 19 countries and, through peer reviews and strict quality control, make the banks as comparable as possible,” said an ECB spokesperson.
Executives at HSH are concerned that the ECB will seek to make examples of certain lenders to show it has been tough on the banks and that its stress tests and asset quality review are credible.
“If you look at it from a European perspective, HSH and NordLB are the two shipping banks and if you want to show you’re eliminating something we are the weaker one,” said a member of HSH’s supervisory board.
Another HSH insider said that a hefty haircut on the shipping portfolio would cause “big problems” for the bank. “It’s a very close call,” said another. The bank declined to comment.
HSH had €20bn in shipping at the end of June, nearly a fifth of its total assets. A further write down of its portfolio would increase the amount the bank has to pay its state owners in return for a guarantee against its losses. That could throw the bank’s business model, which is under review by the European Commission, into question a member of HSH’s supervisory board warned.
While NordLB, another Landesbank, and Commerzbank also have hefty shipping portfolios, making them among the top three shipping lenders in Germany, analysts say the fact both are better diversified than HSH means there is less cause for concern. NordLB’s €16.2bn in shipping is a lower proportion of its overall €199bn in assets, while Commerzbank has €12.8bn in shipping out of total assets of €583bn.
The ECB stress tests are seen as a potentially pivotal moment for the Landesbank sector, where change is usually easier to effect outside of Germany. While the regional lenders have reduced their balance sheets since the financial crisis, some bankers and academics believe there should be further consolidation among the five main remaining Landesbanks.
Jörg Rocholl, president of the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin, said: “The political connections of Landesbanken in Germany remain very strong so that the prospect for change from within the country remains weak. The AQR is thus a highly welcome trigger to carefully review their role again.”
Local politicians have distanced themselves from Landesbanken since the financial crisis saw some lenders fail and others bailed out by state owners, to the chagrin of the German electorate.
Alexander Radwan, a member of the Bundestag’s finance committee, said: “Since the financial crisis, the Landesbanken have, to some extent, become depoliticised so it should be easier to carry out consolidation.”