European regulators are convinced that two of the continent’s banks will fail to produce credible plans to plug capital deficits by tomorrow’s deadline, exposing both to the risk of full or partial nationalisation.
Officials said that it looked “almost inevitable” that a fresh injection of state funds would be needed at Italy’s Monte dei Paschi di Siena and Germany’s Commerzbank. “These are the big cases,” said one.
MPS was shown to have a €3.3bn capital shortfall in December stress tests conducted by the European Banking Authority. Commerzbank had a €5.3bn shortfall. Both banks declined to comment on the prospect they might have to take state funding, though they insisted in private that they could make up the gap through commercial means.