Banks, Debt | featured news

Moody's Investors Service Friday defended its decision to issue a slew of downgrades to Europe's biggest lenders after several of the continent's banks hit out over the "backward" nature of the review.

After a series of positive announcement from Greek FinMin Venizelos, rumors that Moody's would downgrade French banks and Germany was preparing for a Greece to default send equities tanking, particularly French banks.

A top board member of the European Central Bank unexpectedly resigned on Friday in what analysts saw as further evidence of the deep divisions over how to resolve Europe’s growing debt crisis. The move immediately rattled European markets and the euro, which slipped to a six-month low against the dollar. The European Stoxx and German DAX indexes tumbled 3.5 percent.

Nearly one-third of 91 European banks undergoing the latest round of public stress tests could need external support to be brought up to scratch, Moody's said.

The United States probably wouldn't be able to maintain its prized AAA sovereign ratings status if it suffered even a "technical" default on its debt, Fitch Ratings said on Wednesday.

Cash advances are one of the sneakiest ways a bank can trap you into a cycle of debt. But there are a handful of other debt traps you should avoid at all costs. "You may think you can get in and get out, but it's financial quicksand. ...

Wall Street did not create Europe’s debt problem, but bankers enabled Greece and others to borrow beyond their means, in deals that were perfectly legal.

The central bank said it would expand its program of purchasing corporate debt and government bonds by $75 billion and kept its key interest rate at 0.5 percent.

A deal maker at Lehman pioneered ways to package debt which brought huge profits but set off the bank’s collapse.