Deutsche Bank urges ECB to raise rates

AFP, FRANKFURT AM MAIN:  The European Central Bank should end its easy-money policy to avoid inflating market bubbles and relieve struggling eurozone lenders, Deutsche Bank chief John Cryan said yesterday.

“The time of cheap money in Europe must come to an end, despite the strong euro,” Cryan told a Frankfurt bankers’ gathering the day before a closely-watched ECB monetary policy meeting.

ECB policymakers have set interest rates at historic lows and pumped over 2.0 trillion euros ($2.4 trillion) into the economy by buying government and corporate bonds, which Cryan said had helped banks recover from the financial crisis but “also brought fresh turbulence”.

“We are now seeing signs of bubbles in more and more parts of the capital market where we wouldn’t have expected them,” he added.

What’s more, “interest rate policy has been partly responsible for the decline in earnings at European banks” to just 23 per cent of their pre-crisis levels, Cryan said.

Deutsche Bank urges ECB to raise rates

AFP, FRANKFURT AM MAIN: The European Central Bank should end its easy-money policy to avoid inflating market bubbles and relieve struggling eurozone lenders, Deutsche Bank chief John Cryan said yesterday. The time of cheap money in Europe must come to an end, despite the strong euro, Cryan told a Frankfurt bankers gathering the day before a closely-watched ECB monetary policy meeting. ECB policymakers have set interest rates at historic lows and pumped over 2.0 trillion euros ($2.4 trillion) into the economy by buying government and corporate bonds, which Cryan said had helped banks recover from the financial crisis but also brought fresh turbulence. We are now seeing signs of bubbles in more and more parts of the capital market where we wouldnt have expected them, he added. Whats more, interest rate policy has been partly responsible for the decline in earnings at European banks to just 23 per cent of their pre-crisis levels, Cryan said.