bank

Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, has confirmed that it hired the consultancy of Tony Podesta, the elder brother of John Podesta who chaired Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, for lobbying its interests in the United States and proactively seeking the removal of various Obama-era sanctions, the press service of the Russian institution told TASS on Thursday.

"The New York office of Sberbank CIB indeed hired Podesta Group. Engagement of external consultants is part of standard business practices for us," Sberbank said.

Gold Investing 101 - Beware Unallocated Gold Accounts With Indebted Bullion Banks and Mints (Part II)

Despite its widely telegraphed $8.5 billion public offering with another $2 billion expected to be raised from asset sales, Germany's biggest lender is down sharply this morning as much as 6.9% (currently 6.1% lower) as Wall Street analysts dig through the details of the bank's latest massive restructuring, which as reported yesterday seeks to undo many of the changes implemented by CEO John Cryan over the past two years (and which will lead to an 80% reduction in the bank's 2016 bonus pool).

Confirming last week's report of an imminent share sale, on Sunday the biggest German lender announced it would raise €8 billion ($8.5 billion) in new capital through a rights offering sale of 687.5 million new shares, and sell parts of its asset management business in its latest attempt to shore capital following €8 billion in losses in the past two years after a major operational and balance sheet restructuring was launched by CEO John Cryan in 2015, settling misconduct investigations and scaling back capital-intensive debt-trading businesses.

Submitted by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Eurozone Target2 imbalances have touched or exceeded the crisis levels hit in 2012 when Greece was on the verge of leaving the Eurozone. Others have noted the growing imbalances as well.

I had a couple of questions for the ECB regarding Target2, which they have answered, I believe disingenuously.

First, we will explain Target2, then we will take a look at various charts, viewpoints, and the email exchange with the ECB.

Target2 Background