Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Shares in Deutsche Bank fell sharply Friday, dragging down other major European banks and leading German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to express confidence in the country's largest lender after fears about the global financial system sent fresh shudders through the market.
Deutsche Bank shares closed down 8.5 per cent on the German stock exchange after falling as much as 14 per cent. That followed a steep rise in the cost to insure bondholders against the bank defaulting on its debts, known as credit default swaps.
Rising costs on insuring debt were also a prelude to Swiss lender Credit Suisse's government-backed rescue by rival UBS. That hastily arranged takeover Sunday aimed to stem the upheaval in the global financial system after the collapse of two U.S. banks and jitters about Credit Suisse's long-running troubles led its shares to tank and customers to pull out their money.
Asked whether Deutsche Bank could be the next Credit Suisse, Scholz said, "There is no reason to worry."
"Deutsche Bank has thoroughly modernized and reorganized its business and is a very profitable bank," Scholz said after a European Union summit in Brussels.
Like Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank is one of 30 globally significant financial institutions, with international rules requiring it to hold higher levels of capital reserves because its failure could cause widespread losses.
Other major European banks also fell Friday, with Germany's Commerzbank closing down 5.45 per cent, France's Societe Generale off six per cent, and Austria's Raiffeisen down 7.9 per cent.
Markets have been rattled by fears that other banks may have unexpected troubles like U.S.-based Silicon Valley Bank, which went under after customers pulled their money and it suffered uninsured losses because of higher interest rates.
Credit Suisse's troubles, including a US$5.5 billion loss on dealings with a private investment fund, predated the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, but depositors and investors fled after the U.S. failures focused less-friendly attention on banks and a key Credit Suisse investor refused to put up more money.
Deutsche Bank has turned in 10 straight quarters of profit, including 5.7 billion euros (US$6.1 billion) last year, improving its fortunes under CEO Christian Sewing.
Before that, the bank went through a long stretch of low profitability and troubles with regulators going back to the 2008 global financial crisis, including a US$7.2 billion penalty from U.S. authorities for misleading buyers of complex mortgage-backed securities that later went sour.
Despite the rebound under Sewing, the bank was "a natural candidate" for a market selloff because of its previous troubles, large, sometimes complex holdings and market skepticism about its future profits, said Sascha Steffen, professor of finance at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.
The market values the bank at less than the assets on its balance sheet, he said: "That means investors are still very worried about what are the risks that the bank has on its balance sheet or its earnings potential going forward, and that's not good."
Big global banks have sold off more than smaller ones in recent financial turmoil, he said.
"It's contagion -- it's lack of confidence, a lack of trust," Steffen said.
The selloff "might also be more emotionally driven, so to speak, rather than based on facts, but this is something that had to be expected" based on its history and performance after the global financial crisis, he said.
Davide Oneglia at investment strategy research provider TS Lombard said it wasn't surprising that "the next bank in the firing line is now Deutsche Bank." It was associated with Credit Suisse in the past because of "managerial/strategic failures and involvement in many financial scandals" despite its recent profits.
"Whether this is just a reflection of investors' anxiety at the end of a very stressful week, some technical market factor, or signs of more problems to come for the weakest European banks, it's still too early to say," he said.
However, the selloff of European bank shares "continues to appear more related to lack of confidence than fundamentals."
Stuart Graham and Leona Li, analysts at global financial research firm Autonomous, said that "Deutsche is in robust shape."
"We are relatively relaxed in view of Deutsche's robust capital and liquidity positions," they said.
Its holdings of derivatives -- often complex investments whose price is tied to other assets -- are "well known" and "just not very scary, in our view," Graham and Li said.
European officials say banks in the European Union's regulatory system -- which doesn't include Credit Suisse -- are resilient and have no direct exposure to Silicon Valley and little to Credit Suisse.
Efforts to strengthen banking regulation in recent years "puts us all in a position to say that European banking supervision and the financial system are robust and stable and that we have resilient capitalization of European banks," Scholz said.
European leaders, who played down any risk of a possible banking crisis at a summit Friday, say the financial system is in good shape because they require broad adherence to tougher requirements to keep ready cash on hand to cover deposits.
International negotiators agreed to those rules following the 2008 global financial crisis triggered by the failure of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers. U.S. regulators exempted midsize banks, including Silicon Valley Bank, from those safeguards.
The reassurances, however, have not stopped investors from selling the shares amid more general concerns about how global banks will weather the current climate of rising interest rates.
Though higher interest rates should increase bank profits by boosting what they can earn over what they pay on deposits, some long-term investments can sharply lose value and cause losses unless the banks took precautions to hedge those investments.
------
AP reporter Geir Moulson contributed from Berlin.
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
RCMP say human remains found in a rural area in central Saskatchewan may have been there for a decade or more.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
Drew Carey took over as host of 'The Price Is Right' and hopes he’s there for life. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he told 'Entertainment Tonight' of the job he took over from longtime host Bob Barker in 2007.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.