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 

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Key Takeaway:

Russia remains a major area of global risk exposure. Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, which holds roughly half of all retail deposits for the country, is now trading at over 400 bps on its credit default swaps. The "danger zone" is generally regarded as anything north of 300 bps. With oil continuing to plunge following OPEC's move to drive marginal shale producers out of business, the embedded risk in Russia's banking system is growing quickly. Consider this simple example. Energy still accounts for 20-25% of Russia's GDP, and energy prices have fallen ~30% in the last two months. Multiplying those two weightings would imply that Russia's economy is at risk of suffering a decline of 6-7.5%. Compare that with the 8.2% decline experienced by the US Economy in 4Q08 during the height of the US Great Recession.

European Financial CDS - Swaps also were mostly tighter in Europe last week. At the median, European swaps tightened by -8.5%.  Only Greek and Russian bank CDS widened modestly: Greece by about 3.1% and Russia by 2.5%. We would call out Russia's Sberbank, which is now north of 400 bps, reflecting the rising risk in the Russian economy.

European Banking Monitor: Oil Move Priced Into Russian Financials Swaps - chart1 euro financials CDS

Sovereign CDS – Sovereign swaps mostly tightened over last week. Spanish sovereign swaps tightened by -12.5% (-13 bps to 91 ) and American sovereign swaps widened by 8.9% (1 bps to 18).

European Banking Monitor: Oil Move Priced Into Russian Financials Swaps - chart2 sovereign CDS

European Banking Monitor: Oil Move Priced Into Russian Financials Swaps - chart3 sovereign CDS

European Banking Monitor: Oil Move Priced Into Russian Financials Swaps - chart4 sovereign CDS

Euribor-OIS Spread – 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. The Euribor-OIS spread tightened by 2 bps to 8 bps.

European Banking Monitor: Oil Move Priced Into Russian Financials Swaps - chart5 euribor OIS spread

Matthew Hedrick

Associate

Ben Ryan

Analyst