Below are key European banking risk monitors, which are included as part of Josh Steiner and the Financial team's "Monday Morning Risk Monitor".  If you'd like to receive the work of the Financials team or request a trial please email .

Key Takeaways:

*Sovereign Swaps around the world were largely flat week-over-week with the largest single move coming from Ireland, where swaps tightened 28 bps to 253 bps. Spain and Portugal saw their swaps widen by 4 and 8 bps, respectively, while France and Italy saw their swaps tighten by 4 and 8 bps, respectively.

On OMTs Reporting: The ECB has stated that Aggregate Outright Monetary Transaction holdings and their market values will be published on a weekly basis and the average duration of Outright Monetary Transaction holdings and the breakdown by country will take place on a monthly basis. There is no indication that the OMTs has been initiated to date.

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If you’d like to discuss recent developments in Europe, from the political to financial to social, please let me know and we can set up a call.

Matthew Hedrick

Senior Analyst

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European Financials CDS Monitor – It was a fairly uneventful week for default swap action on European banks. The trend was broadly lower (swaps tightened) with a median improvement of 10 bps WoW, and an average decline of 6 bps. Overall, 28 out of 37 European reference entities we track tightened.

European Banking Monitor: European Financial Swaps Mostly Tighter - 11. banks

Euribor-OIS spread – The Euribor-OIS spread tightened by 1 bp to 12 bps, and continues to make new, multi-year lows. The Euribor-OIS spread (the difference between the euro interbank lending rate and overnight indexed swaps) measures bank counterparty risk in the Eurozone. The OIS is analogous to the effective Fed Funds rate in the United States.  Banks lending at the OIS do not swap principal, so counterparty risk in the OIS is minimal.  By contrast, the Euribor rate is the rate offered for unsecured interbank lending.  Thus, the spread between the two isolates counterparty risk. 

European Banking Monitor: European Financial Swaps Mostly Tighter - 11. euribor

ECB Liquidity Recourse to the Deposit Facility – This series has been generally trending lower since July of this year. The ECB Liquidity Recourse to the Deposit Facility measures banks’ overnight deposits with the ECB.  Taken in conjunction with excess reserves, the ECB deposit facility measures excess liquidity in the Euro banking system.  An increase in this metric shows that banks are borrowing from the ECB.  In other words, the deposit facility measures one element of the ECB response to the crisis.  

European Banking Monitor: European Financial Swaps Mostly Tighter - 11. facility