German Bank Regulator Inhibiting Free Movement Of Capital

Is that you, Herr Schäuble?
 

The European Commission and the European Banking Authority are scrutinising German banking regulator BaFin's policy to demand that banks - including subsidiaries of foreign lenders - keep sufficient liquidity for their German operations.

The concern was that some German units of foreign banks were being prevented from transferring liquidity to their parent companies.


The Bank of Italy is said to have raised the issue about BaFin with the EBA.
Italian bank Unicredit, which has a large German subsidiary HVB, is said to have criticised the BaFin rules.

Reuters 

This follows other allegations from Italy that Deutsche Bank AG (DB) hid potential derivative losses from regulators to the bank's large-scale sale of sovereign bonds issued by peripheral euro-zone nations, including Italy.

Another accusation is that Germany had ordered its banks in June to sell off Italian bonds.
An Italian bank was ordered to sell and when it balked, it was threatened with losing its German bank licence if it did not.

"As yields rose in peripheral countries, they fell sharply in Germany, allowing Ms. Merkel to seek to "create a hegemony over the euro zone" and turn the focus from banking to public finances, Mr. Brunetta said, describing the operation as "almost a victory in the third world war."