ireland

Moody's Investors Service sounded the alarm early on Monday morning that the credit ratings of all members of the European Union were now at risk because of the financial crisis that has been escalating in Europe for more than a year. The ratings agency said that the financial crisis that has...

Moody's Investors Service dropped a bombshell on the markets late on Monday when the credit rating agency said that it will "monitor and assess” France's Aaa credit rating. The markets have reacted negatively to much of the recent news out of Europe. The possibility of a downgrade to France's...

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet warned the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday that the financial crisis facing the eurozone is systemic and that Europe's leaders must take decisive action in order to prevent it from escalating and spreading. Trichet will soon be stepping...

Dexia SA agreed to sell its Belgian banking retail operations to the Belgian government for 4 billion euros ($5.4 billion) in order to prevent the Belgian-French financial institution from going bankrupt. Dexia had recently lost access to short term funding because of concerns over its debt...

Banking stocks across Europe have been rising since European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that the eurozone's leaders were considering recapitalizing the region's banks. Banking stocks had already been given a boost after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Europe needed to...

The government of German Chancellor Angela Merkel won a victory on Thursday when the German parliament passed a vote expanding the powers of the institution charged with saving troubled eurozone members like Greece, Ireland and Italy from default. The German Parliament overwhelmingly approved a...

Moody's Investors Service downgraded 8 Greek banks on Friday, citing the banks' exposure to Greek government bonds and a worsening Greek economy. Earlier this year, all of Greece's major banks agreed to a government bond swap that resulted in them reporting billions of euros in losses, which hurt...

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao crushed the hopes of many European optimists on Wednesday when he said while attending the World Economic Forum that it was up to European countries to "put their own houses in order" instead of hoping for cash rich China to bail them out. Premier Wen was responding in...

European stocks were near a two year low as French banking stocks took a beating during trading in Europe on Tuesday. There are growing concerns that French banks are facing a liquidity crisis that will worsen if Greece defaults on its national debt. French and German financial institutions are...

In the United States at least. For those eagerly awaiting the final chapter of the bank, unfortunately, you'll have to wait until 2020, which is when the Irish government projects it will complete a wind up the bank. And even that projection is nothing more than a moving target. What we do know,...

Germany is downplaying speculation that a Tuesday meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will result in some sort of agreement to create eurobonds backed by all of the eurozone members. Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for the German government, said a day...

The French economy unexpectedly stagnated during the 2nd quarter, according to France's National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, which reported that France's 2nd quarter economic growth rate was 0% and that consumer spending fell 0.9%. The news is troubling because France is the...

Switzerland's central bank increased its efforts to cool a rising Swiss franc that threatens the competitiveness of the country's exporters. The Swiss franc has become an even more popular safe haven currency in the aftermath of Standard & Poor's downgrade of the United States' credit rating...

The governments of Italy and Spain are breathing a sigh of relief as a bond purchasing market intervention by the European Central Bank (ECB) has pushed down yields on bonds issued by the two troubled eurozone members. The European Central Bank's previous efforts to keep the yields of troubled...

Moody's Investors Service announced on Monday morning that it was placing the credit rating of Spain and five of its biggest banks under review for possible downgrades, while downgrading the credit rating of six Spanish regions. One of the main factors cited by Moody's for Spain's possible...