The FINANCIAL — German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Friday private sector involvement in a Greek debt restructure was a one-off as long as bonds bear no collective action clauses, seeking to restore confidence to Eur-opean debt markets.
Fears that banks and insurers could be asked to suffer a haircut on other sovereign debt — beyond Greece — has led to a sell-off of bonds issued by peripheral Eurozone countries, stoking funding worries in the European banking sector.
European countries plan to include Collective Action Clauses – which prevent the blocking of a debt restructuring deal by one bondholder at the expense of others — in bonds issued from 2013 but Schaeuble's comments remove uncertainty about bonds that have already been issued.
Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Josef Ackermann welcomed Schaeuble's comments as a clear signal to markets.
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