Tag Archives: Banking

Deutsche Bank Under Fire

March 24, 2023 tremendousblog Leave a comment

Is Deutsche Bank the next Credit Suisse? Traders think so today as they dump the stock and rush to protect bond holdings.

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From a new report in Bloomberg:

Deutsche Bank AG became the latest focus of the banking turmoil in Europe as ongoing concern about the industry amid a slowing economy sent its shares slumping the most in three years and the cost of insuring against default rising.

The bank, which has staged a recovery in recent years after a series of crises, was the biggest loser among large European bank stocks Friday after announcing a plan to repurchase debt, a move normally seen as a sign of strength. Analysts struggled to explain the selloff, which prompted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to publicly back the lender.

The cost of insuring against a bank’s default is a key stat. Called a Credit Default Swap (CDS), this protection often soars in price when a bank is close to failing.

Old Lehman Lesson from 2008:

Watch the price action on the next “weakest bank” for a lead on “what’s next.”

-Deutsche stock down 13%, CDS at the highs and they are back to reporting on daily moves in credit.

That’s not bullish. pic.twitter.com/XeZ7k3FLFK
— Alexander Campbell (@abcampbell) March 24, 2023

One thing in Deutsche Bank’s favor: a big pile of cash. It’s sitting on $179 billion of cash and deposits at central banks, according to its latest annual report.

That means it could pay back 28% of its deposits almost immediately. But the thing is, Credit Suisse had a ton of cash too.

It failed anyway. In the end, no bank can pay back all its depositors right away.

Even US regulators seem concerned. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen convened a group of top officials this morning in an unscheduled, closed door meeting.

In the end, Germany won’t let Deutsche Bank fail. Neither will the ECB.

Deutsche Bank is the largest bank in Germany by far. It ranks #8 in the entire EU.

Olaf Scholz is not going to let old Granny Durchdenwald lose her life savings.

But that doesn’t mean Deutsche Bank shareholders are safe. Once mighty Credit Suisse is now a penny stock.

I hate bank stocks. Banks often pick up pennies in front of a steamroller, turning in decent profits until they suddenly get crushed.

Perhaps Deutsche Bank will survive as an independent company. Either way, shareholders won’t be sleeping well tonight.

What do you think will happen to Deutsche Bank? Leave a comment and let us know!

Have a great weekend everyone!

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Interest Rate Time Bomb May Kill Hedge Funds

March 20, 2023 tremendousblog 4 Comments

As March began, hedge funds placed one of their biggest bets of all time. It may be their undoing.

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Traders placed the largest bet in history on increasing short term interest rates. But as a banking crisis spreads, rates may fall, exposing them to huge losses.

From a report out this morning in Reuters:

Hedge funds face huge losses on their record bet that the Fed will go full steam ahead with its aggressive interest rate-raising campaign, after some of the most abrupt and violent swings in U.S. rates and bond market pricing in living memory.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data shows that speculators held the largest ever net short position in three-month SOFR rate futures in the week ending March 7, only a few weeks after amassing a record short position in two-year Treasuries futures.

Now, their trade is deeply underwater:

Implied rates then plunged as much as 200 basis points in a week as traders drastically redrew their Fed outlook. The two-year Treasury yield posted its biggest fall since the Black Monday crash of 1987, and U.S. bond market volatility surged the most since Lehman’s collapse.

Many funds have already lost 10% of their assets or more so far this month. And as bank after bank fails, the bleeding may get even worse.

A month ago, most of us thought the Federal Reserve would keep raising rates. Inflation was the priority.

Now, with a cascade of bank failures, the Fed may cut rates to stop the crisis. Markets are predicting the Fed will lower rates this summer.

The question for the Fed this morning isn't whether to hike 25bp or 50bp this week. It's when do they start cutting rates, at least according to fed funds futures, which have priced out rate cuts and priced in rate cuts as soon as June. pic.twitter.com/ROHatlStkx
— Lisa Abramowicz (@lisaabramowicz1) March 20, 2023

Already, hedge funds are going bust.

Adam Levinson’s Graticule Asia lost 25% this year, most of it in a few days after the SVB collapse. The fund has closed its doors.

As an investor, sometimes I think I know where markets are heading. But I never put too many eggs in one basket.

I’m playing with my own money. But most hedge funds aren’t.

And it’s not hard to tell.

What do you think will happen to these funds?

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Business, Technology

Executives Dumped Shares Shortly Before First Republic Rescue

March 16, 2023 tremendousblog 5 Comments

Top executives dumped shares in First Republic bank this year, shortly before its near collapse and rescue. These sales were not part of pre-announced plans.

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From The Wall Street Journal:

Top executives of First Republic Bank sold millions of dollars of company stock in the two months before the bank’s shares plummeted during the panic over the health of regional lenders.

Executives had been selling for months, the documents show. Executive Chairman James Herbert II has sold $4.5 million worth of shares since the start of the year. In all, insiders have sold $11.8 million worth of stock so far this year at prices averaging just below $130 a share. The bank’s chief credit officer, its president of private wealth management and chief executive together sold $7 million worth of stock.

None of the filings for the executives’ sales indicate that they were executed under 10b5-1 plans, which are pre-scheduled sales designed to insulate insiders from accusations of trading on nonpublic information.

Their timing was great! The stock is down 72% this year, with most losses coming in the last week.

If authorities can find evidence that they knew the bank was teetering and didn’t warn investors, these men belong in prison.

Today, some of the country’s largest banks are working on a rescue for First Republic. From Bloomberg:

The nation’s biggest banks are close to agreeing upon a plan to deposit as much as $30 billion with First Republic Bank in an effort supported by the US government to stabilize the battered California lender, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Customers have been pulling billions from First Republic since the failure of Silicon Valley Bank. This appears to have put First Republic on the brink of being unable to redeem deposits.

First Republic does not appear to be insolvent. But no bank can redeem a huge portion of its deposits at once.

And given these large, well-timed insider sales, the bank seems to have considerable internal dysfunction.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: diversify your deposits.

You can split 50/50 or into even smaller chunks. But be sure to include one or more of the Big 4 banks (JPM, Citi, BoA, Wells).

They can be a pain in the neck to deal with. But they’re the most Too Big to Fail-y banks out there.

What do you think an investigation of First Republic will find?

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Photo: First Republic CEO Michael J. Roffler

Business, Politics

Mass Protests in China as Bank Runs Continue

July 12, 2022 tremendousblog 2 Comments

Major news out of China as over 1,000 protestors in Zhengzhou demanded their savings back:

This is huge. Don't know how this will end. Henan bank is NOT the only one that is having problems with liquidity. All four Chinese banks are having the same issue. Some depositors found they can save and can NOT withdraw money with their bank cards. #bankrun #China #CCP pic.twitter.com/5WYYgpmIWP
— Jennifer Zeng 曾錚 (@jenniferatntd) July 10, 2022

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There are runs on several Chinese banks. The depositors, desperate not to lose their life’s savings, are taking great risk to speak out.

From the Indian Express:

In a rare large protest in China, over one thousand angry bank depositors, who have been protesting for access to their frozen funds, faced off with the police in Henan province leading to a violent clampdown Sunday.
Depositors of four rural banks in this central province have not been able to withdraw their funds since April. Sporadic protests have been going on since May.

Many smaller Chinese banks promised high interest rates to attract deposits. They advertised those rates on platforms run by Chinese tech giants like Baidu and JD.

Now, these small banks are finding themselves unable to pay those high rates. Worse yet, some banks have been infiltrated by criminals who are siphoning money out:

In the present case it is being alleged that these banks attracted deposits by offering attractive terms and high interest rates. A report in the South China Morning Post in May said that while Bank of China offers 2.75% a year interest on five-year deposits, the found banks in question were giving around 4.5% a year on their deposit products through third-party platforms.
Also, a statement by the Henan police on July 10 said that a criminal group had gradually taken control of several rural banks and was moving out funds.

Behind the peril facing Chinese banks is a weak economy. Intense COVID lockdowns this year have hammered economic activity.

An overheated property market is also crumbling. This has triggered defaults at major property developers, including Evergrande.

Something interesting happens when people see depositors struggling to get their money out. They start wondering about their own bank.

This is how a contagion could spread through the Chinese banking system. Cue It’s a Wonderful Life, without the happy ending.

The Chinese government’s violent repression of small savers in Zhengzhou may be just the beginning.

China is in a sensitive period. The 20th Party Congress, enormously important to the Communist elite, happens in November.

At that meeting, Xi hopes to secure a third term in office and effectively become leader for life. He and his underlings are likely to repress any “disturbance” during this time.

Already, China’s massive surveillance apparatus is being turned on these small savers.

Zhengzhou protesters have had their “health codes” turned off. Without the green QR code on their phones, they can go nowhere and do nothing.

The health code system was created to stem COVID. Predictably, it’s now being turned against dissidents.

I’m not a particularly religious man, but this Orwellian act reminded me of a passage from the Bible:

It forced all the people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to be given a stamped image on their right hands or their foreheads,
so that no one could buy or sell except one who had the stamped image of the beast’s name or the number that stood for its name.
Revelation 13:16-17

I hope these decent, hardworking people will get their life’s savings back. I also hope we always resist this type of tyranny here at home.

What do you think is next in China? Leave a comment at the bottom and let me know.

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Business

Will Evergrande Spark a Global Financial Crisis?

September 20, 2021 tremendousblog 1 Comment

A massive Chinese property developer is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, roiling markets worldwide today:

Worries about spreading contagion from troubles in China’s property market sent U.S. stocks toward their steepest declines in months on Monday.
The retreat came amid concerns over property developer China Evergrande Group. Market participants increasingly believe that Beijing will let Evergrande fail and inflict losses on its shareholders and bondholders. The company’s debt burden is the biggest for any publicly traded real estate management or development company in the world.

What Is Evergrande?

Evergrande is an odd company. It is one of China’s largest property developers but also has its hands in electric cars, soccer and bottled water. It has more debt than any other real estate company on the planet.

Sales have slowed in recent years, along with China’s economy. Rather than devising a new strategy or pulling back on growth, Evergrande has continued to build at a breakneck pace, earning lower and lower margins.

It’s the old “We lose money on every one, but we make it up in volume!” mistake. And as if to make things even worse, they’ve expanded to businesses they know nothing about. What unique insights does a property developer have on the bottled water market?

Risks in China

If Evergrande goes down, who’s going down with them? Probably mostly Chinese banks, as they’re the major holder of the embattled conglomerate’s debt. JP Morgan estimates that China Minsheng Bank has the largest exposure.

China Minsheng bank is an interesting company. In a banking sector dominated by state owned banks, China Minsheng was the first bank mostly owned by the private sector.

In a moment when Xi is trying to centralize the economy and promote state owned business, he could let it fail. The state owned banks could pick up the pieces, cementing their position.

But if a massive property developer like Evergrande fails, perhaps taking some major banks along with them, the Chinese financial system could be badly shaken.

Add this to crackdowns on numerous tech companies and even seemingly random targets like celebrities, and I could see a crisis in confidence in Chinese markets.

They’re already weak:

What About the US?

I think US markets are overreacting today. The institutions with heavy exposure to Evergrande appear to be mostly Chinese, not American. Moreover, trade with China is just 6% of US exports.

In all, I could see China’s economy and markets taking a significant hit, but I think the damage will be contained.

Investors in China, good luck.

A Giant Hedge Fund Is Imploding, Taking Stocks with It

March 29, 2021 tremendousblog Leave a comment

Ten billion dollar hedge fund Archegos Capital Management is imploding, causing banks to frantically sell its portfolio to stem further losses:

One mystery in a dramatic year on Wall Street has been the identity of a trader whose persistent purchases have sent shares in ViacomCBS Inc., Discovery Inc. and a handful of other companies surging even when the broader market was down.
People familiar with the transactions say the answer is former Tiger Asia manager Bill Hwang. Late last week Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG swiftly unloaded large blocks of shares in those companies and others, part of the liquidation of positions at Mr. Hwang’s Archegos Capital Management.
The sales approached $30 billion in value, some of the people said, and fueled a 27% plunge Friday in shares of ViacomCBS—an unusually large decline in a widely held, large-capitalization stock on a day with no significant company-specific news. Billions of market value in other companies were wiped out as the sales continued, surprising market participants who called the size and speed of these stock sales unprecedented.

Hwang had placed giant bets on several stocks funded with borrowed money, and his fund suffered major losses when the stocks moved against him:

…a major actor in supporting companies’ share prices appears to have been undone by his continuing to add to leveraged bets as markets soared. The strategy fell apart when some of those bets started to reverse on him.

There were serious warning signs about Hwang’s conduct, which his banks, including Nomura and Credit Suisse, did not heed:

U.S. securities filings show Credit Suisse was prime broker in 2011 and 2012 to Mr. Hwang’s former firm, Tiger Asia Management LLC. Tiger Asia handed money back to investors after Mr. Hwang admitted in December 2012 that the hedge fund criminally used inside information from investment banks at least three times to profit on securities trades.

This is the latest in a string of problems for Credit Suisse:

Credit Suisse is still digesting the collapse earlier this month of Greensill, a British supply-chain finance company that declared bankruptcy shortly after the Swiss bank froze funds that provided it with liquidity. The double hit could be an extraordinary run of bad luck; there were other banks caught up in both failures. Alternatively, it could point to endemic problems of risk management at Credit Suisse. The Swiss company carried on working with Greensill despite internal concerns.

So if you see volatility in stocks like Viacom, Discovery, Credit Suisse, etc. in the coming days, you’ll know where it’s coming from. I do wonder if other stocks may be impacted by this forced selling of Archegos’ positions.

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Tag Archives: Banking

Deutsche Bank Under Fire

Interest Rate Time Bomb May Kill Hedge Funds

Executives Dumped Shares Shortly Before First Republic Rescue

Will Evergrande Spark a Global Financial Crisis?

A Giant Hedge Fund Is Imploding, Taking Stocks with It

An angel investor's take on life and business