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- Newslink Trends-The Global Strategic Perspective
- Juniper Research says digital wallet users to exceed 4.4 billion by 2025, as mobile drives digital payments’ revolution
- Criminals exploit COVID-19 pandemic with rise in scams targeting victims online
- Equifax says Open Banking proving pivotal to pandemic lending
- Consumer confidence in banks, credit card providers and investments remain stable as demand supercharges digital finance says Toluna research
- Mintos says Europeans are starting to embrace investing
- US banks see IT modernisation as a way to improve customer experience
- Risk mitigation in global trade depends on digitisation-Andrew Raymond, CEO, Bolero International comments
- Juniper Research new study says the volume of B2B payments facilitated by non-banks will exceed 53 billion in 2022, from a COVID-related low of 38 billion in 2020
- CMA issues fifth publication over 3 years of the service quality league table of personal and business current account providers
- Barclays says scammers take advantage of COVID-19, cashing in on nations’ uncertainty
- S&P Global report says financial market infrastructure sector's earnings likely to cool off In second half
- Global banking market capitalisation slumps by over 30% amid pandemic says Buyshares research
- Digital wallet spend in Europe & North America to increase by 40% in 2019, finds study
- Juniper forecasts mobile money transactions will exceed 200 billion by 2024
- Banks can save the world from climate change, says former UN climate chief
- Research by NatWest reveals gender divide over attitudes to saving
- Europe’s big bank problem: too much capital is trapped in the US, says Scope
- Later-Life lending market set to almost double in the next 10 years, finds report
- Barclays/Cebr report challenges nation to think differently about wealth
- Fifth of UK investors looking to debt investment, new research reveals
- Regtech will play a more important role in PSD2, says Mitek
- Banks turn to Fintech partnerships to improve customer experience, finds Fraedom
- New industry code to tackle fraud must deliver, says Which?
- New TTF report highlights loss of trust in financial services
- Arxan highlights financial app vulnerability epidemic
- SAS asks whether banks really need to choose between operations and innovation
- Which? raises alarm as almost 1,700 free ATMs become fee-charging
- Financial wellness affects half of peoples’ mental or physical health, finds report
- Study finds traditional financial institutions embrace Fintech disruption
- Grass is greener for environmentally friendly businesses, finds Barclays
- Prospective homeowners would consider a 40-year mortgage to escape renting, finds Santander
- Millennials’ needs are changing the face of banking industry, says new report
- FS is putting consumer data at risk by failing to protect mobile apps, says Arxan
- A lack of belief in their ability holds 28% women back in work, says Cambridge & Counties
- ‘Which?’ reveals Scotland has lost over a third of its bank branches in eight years
- Next downturn unlikely to be as bad as 2008, according to S&P
- FCA reveals findings from first cryptoassets consumer research
- US consumers favour single mobile app for banking and payments
- Banks suffering major IT shutdowns every day, ‘Which?’ reveals
- The US will be a key offshore centre in 2019, says GlobalData
- Debit industry changes markedly in 10 years of the Debit Issuer Study
- UK's ‘Big Five’ face ‘too big to compete’ as small challengers secure stellar returns
- Banks as vulnerable now as before crash, says new study
- Leverage ratio a constant conundrum for European and US banks, says SNL
22nd November 2011
European banks pressured to write down goodwill
Opinion
The depressed European banking market with few optimistic for a fast turnaround is bringing to the forefront another problem for European banks - that of large amounts of goodwill carried on their books arising from past acquisitions. Market estimates suggest European banks may be carrying around €200m (£172m $272m ¥20.8bn Y1,725m) of such goodwill. The justification for carrying such a large amount is to say the least controversial, and becoming more so.
UniCredit wrote down €8.67bn (£7.44bn $11.8bn¥902bn Y74.8bn) goodwill in the most recent quarter. Of this total €705m related to subsidiary, Bank Austria and its acquisitions in the CEE region. Erste, another acquirer of CEE region banks also wrote down €700m. Many other banks have written down sums of up to €250m this year.
Europe and many other countries use International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) which refer to the need to writedown goodwill where the asset has 'permanently lower value'. There are indications that since these rules were first introduced a wider and looser definition of this ruling has been taken. In the early period most organisations wrote goodwill down rapidly. More recently banks especially, stretched by other financial requirements have not been so strict. One get out possible in better times for banks was that that the value of the asset was better defined as a multiple of earnings rather than its market value as defined by its share price. The banks put forward optimistic business plans with high earnings to justify the asset price.
In July of this year the UK Financial Reporting Council, which monitors accountancy firms was very critical of the way bank audits were carried out and specifically referred to the failure by the accounting firms to challenge clients valuations of goodwill.
Although carrying unrealistic levels of goodwill may mislead a sector of shareholders and media it does not get past the professional analyst. One reason for the recent spate of goodwill writedowns, all be it the tip of the iceberg, is the need for banks to raise additional capital. With any major equity or bond issue from banks scrutinised very carefully the carrying of unrealistic goodwill would seriously jeopardise the offer. UniCredit is expected to go to the market shortly seeking a major capital injection.
Santander, Intesa Sanpaolo and Crédit Agricole are the European banks with the highest amount of goodwill carried on the balance sheet. As a percentage of the balance sheet total Crédit Agricole top the list at 36%, closely followed by Intesa at 35% whilst Santander is 30% (figures courtesy of Bloomberg). Statutory capital levels under Basel II and Basel III do not include goodwill.