Last week Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, issued an indirect challenge to banks by firmly committing the ECB to eliminating risk premia reflecting “convertibility risk” – the fear that the euro might disintegrate into smaller currencies. The scale of that task is clear from how banks are not only limiting new lending to stressed eurozone countries, but – as US banks are reported to do – tweaking derivatives contracts to protect their claims in case of a euro break-up.
歐洲央行(ECB)行長(zhǎng)馬里奧?德拉吉(Mario Draghi)最近向銀行業(yè)間接發(fā)起挑戰(zhàn)。他態(tài)度堅(jiān)決地承諾，歐洲央行將采取措施消除反映“可兌換性風(fēng)險(xiǎn)”（市場(chǎng)擔(dān)心歐元區(qū)可能瓦解為若干個(gè)較小的貨幣區(qū)）的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)溢價(jià)。這項(xiàng)任務(wù)的難度之大從銀行業(yè)當(dāng)前采取的舉措中可見(jiàn)一斑。銀行不僅開(kāi)始限制對(duì)陷入困境的歐元區(qū)國(guó)家的新增貸款規(guī)模，而且還在調(diào)整所持衍生品合約的內(nèi)容、以在歐元區(qū)解體時(shí)保護(hù)自身利益——有報(bào)道稱(chēng)，美國(guó)的銀行就正在這么做。