Bailout,DE: News Real Time News items

• German upper parliamentary house passes bad bank law amendment --Fin Ministry Posted:10/07/2009 11:50 GMT by NeedToKnowNews
  Under the amendment, German banks can either found their own special purpose vehicles to get rid of toxic assets or they can give them to a restructuring unit together with non-performing business lines.
  The second option is called "consolidation model" and was introduced to allow the state-owned Landesbanken to dispose of business units that are no longer of strategic value.
  Restructuring units of this kind are subject to oversight by the different German states and cannot receive federal guarantees from the SoFFin fund.
  
• Commercial property next problem for German banks --HandelsblattPosted:11/07/2009 19:53 GMT by NeedToKnowNews
  German financial regulator BaFin is increasingly worried about the effects falling commercial real estate will have on banks' balance sheets, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported. If property prices fall, lenders are required to put aside a larger portion of their equity capital to cover the increased risk. Problems at German banks' financing for commercial real estate stem mostly from abroad. The percentage of foreign commercial property financing at German banks has surged from 27% to around 50% between 2004 and 2007, according to data from the VDA, Germany's mortgage bank association. Read full story (in German) here: http://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/banken-versicherungen/immobilien-die-naechste-bilanz-bombe;2203692
• Berlin mulls law to suspend shareholder rights Posted:11/07/2009 19:12 GMT by NeedToKnowNews
  Rights of shareholders in German banks may be suspended for restructuring reasons under a draft from the German justice and finance ministries, the German newspaper Handelsblatt reported. The aim of the proposed insolvency law is to restructure troubled lenders rather than let them go bankrupt. According to the draft, the government may guarantee the liabilities of an ailing financial institution. In turn, the state shall be entitled to restrict the shareholders' rights for the length of the restructuring process. In a first step, the new insolvency law would only be applied to financial institutions. In a second step, it could be used in other sectors, a spokesperson of the German econ ministry told Handelsblatt. Read full story (in German) here: http://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/neues-insolvenzverfahren-fuer-banken-fast-fertig;2196710
• Germany's Merkel: Opel not 'critical to the system' --ReportsPosted:16/07/2009 6:04 GMT by NeedToKnowNews
  German Chancellor Angela Merkel has reportedly said ailing carmaker Opel was not "critical to the system," an indication that Europe's largest economic power is not willing to bailout the troubled manufacturer. According to a number of reports, Merkel told other high ranking Christian Democrats during a private meeting that unlike banks, the carmaker deserves no special treatment. Read story here: http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,611271,00.html
• German Bank Association Proposes 'Bad Bank' for All --Sueddeutsche ZeitungPosted:12/07/2009 21:57 GMT by NeedToKnowNews
  Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that the German Banking Association (BdB) lobbies for the creation of a central bad bank to take on all toxic assets currently hedl by German banks. Full story (in German): SZ http://www.sueddeutsche.de/,tt2m1/finanzen/923/458574/text/