Key topics
1. State of the banking industry
- Global banking industry with solid increase in market cap and positive TSR — but global top 100 banks worst among all industry sectors
- Western European banks with negative TSR
2. Key banking drivers
- Surprisingly sharp drop of US GDP, but Western Europe continued its recovery
- ECB and Fed’s monetary policy lowered long-term interest rates again in Q2 2014, leading to even flatter yield curves — German interest rates back at their level of 2012
- Investment banking clearly improved with higher volumes in all segments
3. Special topic: The EBA stress test—challenging the European banking sector’s substance
- EBA stress test is the next core element in ECB’s Comprehensive Assessment
- EBA currently analyzes delivered results and refines methodology and calibration
- Results are expected at end of October
Picture: Skyline Toronto
