German lenders release PIIGS stats but Deutsche Bank is quiet
GERMAN banks appeared to cave in to pressure from European Union regulators late yesterday as they joined EU peers to reveal the extent of their exposure to heavily indebted Eurozone nations.
The banks — Hypo Real Estate, Landesbank Berlin and cooperative banks DZ Bank and WGZ Bank — joined Postbank to reveal their sovereign debt exposure to Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain, or PIIGS states. The exposure to these heavily-indebted Eurozone countries has been a concern among regulators following worries earlier this year that Greece might struggle to service its government debt.
Hypo Real Estate late last night said it had €73bn (£61bn) worth of exposure to PIIGS states.
Landesbank Berlin said it had €1bn worth of exposure to PIIGS states as of 31 May, most of which was held on the banking books.
Postbank said its total sovereign exposure was €7.9bn as of 20 July.
Cooperative bank WGZ Bank said it had €4bn of exposure to the PIIGS states as of the end of March.
Cooperative bank DZ revealed €11.3bn of exposure to PIIGS.
Only Deutsche Bank has not disclosed its Eurozone exposures.