archiveBISV

Aug 1 (Reuters) - Rating agency Fitch on Tuesday downgraded the U.S. government's top credit rating, a move that drew an angry response from the White House and surprised investors, coming despite the resolution of the debt ceiling crisis two months ago.Fitch downgraded the United States to AA+ from AAA, citing fiscal deterioration over the next three years and repeated down-the-wire debt ceiling negotiations that threaten the government’s ability to pay its bills.Fitch had first flagged the possibility of a downgrade in May, then maintained that position in June after...

LONDON/SYDNEY, July 31 (Reuters) - Commercial real estate investors and lenders are slowly confronting an ugly question - if people never again shop in malls or work in offices the way they did before the pandemic, how safe are the fortunes they piled into bricks and mortar?Rising interest rates, stubborn inflation and squally economic conditions are familiar foes to seasoned commercial property buyers, who typically ride out storms waiting for rental demand to rally and the cost of borrowing to fall.Cyclical downturns rarely prompt fire sales, so long as lenders...

LONDON/FRANKFURT, July 28 (Reuters) - Three banks from the European Union failed to meet binding capital requirements in a stress test that saw a theoretical 496 billion euros ($546 billion) wiped from their buffers, the bloc's banking watchdog said on Friday.Bank stress tests became a feature in Europe and the United States after the 2008 global financial crisis when taxpayers had to bail out some undercapitalised lenders. They are now part of routine supervision to ensure banks can still support the economy even in times of stressed markets.The European Banking...