On a quarterly basis, FCF publishes its FCF Bank Monitor. The FCF Bank-Monitor is a research report, based on publicly available data, on the most active and largest 22 banking institutions addressing the German and Austrian Mittelstand. It supports CFOs and Heads of Treasury in the selection of their long-term banking partners, following the motto “Know-Your-Bank”.
The FCF Bank Monitor includes:
- Credit Default Swaps: Analysis of the 1-, 5- and 10-year Credit Default Swap-Spreads (CDS-Spreads), which serve as a forward-looking risk indicator within the banking sector.
- Rating: Rating information of the big-3 rating agencies.
- Performance: Key fundamental performance indicators for financial institutions.
- Bank Ranking: A ranking based on above criteria provides insight into the health and market perspective of the individual banking institutions, in addition to highlighting the relative performance between the institutions.
- League Table: Most active banks in German and Austrian mid-cap segments by lending volume.
Key findings of the FCF Bank Monitor (Q1 2024):
- The trend of declining CDS spreads, which started in 2023, continued in Q1 2024 for both domestic and foreign banks, reflecting the market’s confidence in a “soft landing” of the European economy and declining risk within the banking industry.
- The Q1 2024 league table is headed, once again, by Bayern LB, followed by ING Bank and J.P. Morgan. Crédit Mutuel and NORD/LB are the biggest winners, gaining four ranks over the last 3 months, however, both remaining in the second half of the league table.
- On average, the mean CDS spreads of German banks are still trading somewhat above those of their foreign peers, driven by a more pessimistic outlook for the German economy.
To access the full report, please click here.
By Arno Fuchs, Kai Frömert, Marcel Lange, Tristan Blümli and Marco Buenafede.