Europe’s banks stage US retreat

[alp227]

Source: Financial Times

Eurozone banks have retreated dramatically from the US over the five years since the financial crisis began, cutting their assets in the country by more than a third, according to a Financial Times analysis of Federal Reserve data.

Bank failures, asset writedowns and the sale of loans and businesses have sent US assets of eurozone banks tumbling by $540bn from their $1.51tn peak in September 2007.

Eurozone banks have also come under pressure from regulators to boost capital ratios, with many choosing to shrink their US business because dollar funding has been harder to come by.

US assets held by eurozone banks stood at $973bn as of March this year, according to the most recent Fed data, the lowest amount since 2005.

Read more: http://liveweb.archive.org/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/eabcc680-d3eb-11e1-a5c2-00144feabdc0.html?ft

[Turbineguy]

1. They probably figured they could make more money

buying Greek bonds.

History shows that the best place to invest is the opposite of where banks invest. If it were not so, they would not need to screw their customers.