UK/Ireland account for 23% of Greek debt

inspector_monkfish

:eek::eek::eek:

The Greek crisis is a matter of direct concern to EU countries because of their extensive holdings of Greek government debt. The UK and Ireland account for about 23 per cent of the total outstanding Greek debt, followed by France at 11 per cent and Italy at 6 per cent. Germany, Austria and Switzerland hold about 9 per cent and the three Benelux countries another 6 per cent.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/677b8c66-0c42-11df-8b81-00144feabdc0.html

lemonjelly

I may be overlapping/confusing 2 threads on here, but does this mean that if they can't pay us/their debts (& 1 eur in every 4 is due to us) we're phuqt?

Could this create a 2nd wave of credit crunch/banks ain't got no money type scenarios?

Rochdale_Pioneers

23% between Britain and Ireland. Whats the split?

Generali

Rochdale_Pioneers wrote: »

23% between Britain and Ireland. Whats the split?

Britain and Ireland share a 'settlements' system which I guess is being used to measure this. As such it would be impossible to say unless you look at the stamp duty paid which differs between countries.

ses6jwg

Bet RBS had their fingers in it.

michaels

With the rising yields there is a nice big capital loss if anyone still marks to market even if they don't default in the end...

Wookster

What's the saying? "Throwing good money after bad"?

Degenerate

Generali wrote: »

Britain and Ireland share a 'settlements' system which I guess is being used to measure this. As such it would be impossible to say unless you look at the stamp duty paid which differs between countries.

Given that govenment debt is mostly purchased as a "safe" asset by banks, pension schemes and the like, and exchange rate risk defeats the object of this, it seems much more likely to be held in the Euro-zone member Ireland. Then consider that the Irish Government ran a budget surplus as recently as 2006, so their own bonds were in fairly short supply, and it could be that many institutions had to purchase other euro-zone countries bonds. I'd bet that about half is with Irish pension schemes and another big chunk held by the Irish government bank-bailout clusterf*ck known as NAMA.

Generali

Degenerate wrote: »

Given that govenment debt is mostly purchased as a "safe" asset by banks, pension schemes and the like, and exchange rate risk defeats the object of this, it seems much more likely to be held in the Euro-zone member Ireland. Then consider that the Irish Government ran a budget surplus as recently as 2006, so their own bonds were in fairly short supply, and it could be that many institutions had to purchase other euro-zone countries bonds. I'd bet that about half is with Irish pension schemes and another big chunk held by the Irish government bank-bailout clusterf*ck known as NAMA.

I don't think that Greece was ever AAA although I'm not sure.

Merrill Lynch and Citibank both had large client servicing operations in Dublin. Many others hold all of their European accounts in London (as much as is possible due to regulation). It is perfectly possible that a lot of this debt is held by European bond funds but being held in accounts in those countries.

Unfortunately, we don't know how these numbers have been calculated so ultimately it's impossible to say.