The Bear Stearns bomb has left bank trading floors full of fear. Faced with perceived counterparty risk at every turn, financial trading and interbank lending nearly ground to a halt on Monday.
“There’s turmoil in all markets after Bear Stearns,” said BNP Paribas strategist Edmund Shing. “Everyone’s asking: Who’s next? Is there a Bear Stearns in Europe? Could investment banks start to fail?”
Reflecting the fear, London interbank offered rates rose 80 points, the biggest daily increase since the attacks of September 11, 2001.
As stock prices and the U.S. dollar plummet, banks’ access to unsecured borrowing from each other has all but dried up, and dealers say the over-the-counter market had become highly discriminatory, depending on the bank name.
Published dealing rates were unreliable and analysts said any bank that had not already secured funding further than a week or so would struggle to raise cash at all.
“Bear’s near-collapse and takeover accelerates the liquidity crunch and the money market crisis,” Dresdner Kleinwort analyst Willem Sels told clients in a note.
“Banks’ risk aversion and sensitivity to counterparty risk should rise even further, leading to more pressure on hedge funds. Money markets are having a brutal wake-up call.”
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Bear Stearn’s loss was not unexpected but how far US stratgists are thinking valid and how much the hype about potent US economy is , now this is the question of the hour.No matter one has a fall but all investment Banks world over should now start thinking in more realistic manner and more logical.Expansion was the motto upto yesterday but now it is sustainability.Are we ready to see things more practical and to accept that emerging markets are strong enough to given spectacular competition to so called Developed one !
- Posted by Abhishek