For the first time since 2012, Bafin - Germany’s banking regulator, which for a minute looked like it might actually accuse Anshu Jain of lying about LIBOR - has closed a bank.
All financial transactions by Maple Bank of Canada’s German subsidiary have been halted on the grounds the operation has too much debt or, as BaFin put it, there’s “a prohibition on transfer of ownership and payment, due to imminent over indebtedness.”
The biggest event of the weekend, if not the month, was China's FX reserve outflow update, which at $100BN was slightly better than the $120BN expected (it pushed China's reserves to the lowest in nearly 4 years) but it was in the "no man's land" between the BofA best case scenario ($37.5BN), and the GS worst case ($197BN).
NATO have announced plans to build-up its biggest military presence on the Russian border since the Cold War, in an effort to deter Russia from invading surrounding countries. As relations between Russia and NATO-backed allies continue to deteriorate, NATO have decided to bolster defenses on its eastern flank by stationing 40,000 troops permanently at Russia’s doorstep.
Authored by Pepe Escobar, originally posted Op-Ed at RT.com,