11 February 2012

Sector: Finance

11/03/2010 Robert Tyerman

Banking woes on the Continent have done little to steady nerves on this side of the Channel. Greek banks have come under renewed pressure, not only from the Athens government’s own prolonged debt crisis, but from a savage downgrading from the powerful Fitch Ratings agency.

Fitch has lowered the ratings on some of the country’s top banks, putting National Bank of Greece, Alpha Bank, EFGH Eurobank Ergasias and Piraeus Bank to ‘BBB’. That is only two notches above ‘junk’ rating and reflects the fear that the fiscal tightening that Greece must accept will hit loan demand and credit quality in the wider economy.

Germany’s mighty Commerzbank hardly lightened the gloom with trading losses of £500 million in the past three months. The bank, bailed out by Berlin to the tune of £14 billion last year, reported an overall loss of £1.7 billion.

On AIM, financial intermediary Jelf Group attracted an £11 million investment from US private equity concern Capital Z.

Sector: General Financial

Companies: Jelf

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