Naughty American Bankers,nice French Bankers?

France Inter’s daily radio chronicle by Bernard Maris, journalist and writer.

Citigroup is next in line to collect the aid money while its leaders are being sued by investors. What about the French banks? Are they white as snow?

Citigroup doesn’t do as well as BNP does. The second American commercial bank just benefited from the massive American help plan: $306 billion to relinquish some of their command. Citigroup also happens to be targeted by a class action, led by a group of investors who accuse them of hiding their engagements on speculative markets. Their stock was valued at 52 dollars in 2007 and recently dropped at around $8. These good people are especially angry at Robert Rubin, who was Clinton’s Treasure Secretary between 1995 and 1999. This young man, who also was considered to become a member of Obama Team, may have helped Citigroup’s executive to hide some 70 billions worth of business transactions.

In fact, “derivates” are purely speculative. As everybody speculates about money values, interest rates or stocks, bankers cover, exploit derivate markets and hire rogue traders like Jérôme Kerviel. The sums involved in derived markets reach astronomical levels, on the trillions of dollars. So, Citigroup will cut 52.000 jobs, “only” 1500 of which are based in the City.

Naughty American Bankers, nice French ones ?

The BNP people are not especially more candid. Besides the bad bank, the good one: the BNP. They did not get too wet playing with the American financial system. They even happen to be left quite unhurt by the crisis. The BNP announces $4.5 billions profit for the first nine months of the year. Their provisions are one and a half billion dollars. They remain, however, largely the sole beneficiary of it. Of course, they will not refuse the 2.5 billions that the government is lending as a help to relaunch the inter-bank loans market.

Anyway, will they keep fighting against fiscal paradises? “No”, according to Baudoin Prot, their CEO. “Suppressing fiscal paradise is not an eventuality: As we work with places such as Jersey, Luxembourg or Switzerland, we avoid laundering money.” “But”, he pertinently adds, “fiscal paradises will only disappear when all states will share the same fiscal policy.” So, bankers are just clean-handed handlers. It’s just a pity they do not have hands.

The good news of the day is that advertising investment is decreasing almost everywhere in the world, especially in America and West Europa.