The Seattle Times: Europe works to limit fallout from U.S. financial crisis

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Europe works to limit fallout from U.S. financial crisis

European officials promised Wednesday to move fast on approving bank bailouts and proposed tougher regulation on their big four economies — Britain, France, Germany and Italy — as the turmoil that has rocked the U.S. banking system spread to Europe.While the major banks in Europe, including Deutsche Bank, Barclays and Société Générale, appear to be weathering the financial storm fairly well, several others have been taken over through consolidations or nationalizations.The EU also laid out longer-term regulatory changes to curb practices that caused the crisis and improve supervision for banks that operate across national boundaries. For example, the European Commission proposed that sellers should hold at least 5 percent of the investment when they sell loans repackaged as securities.

European governments voluntarily banded together to inject cash into two banks that operate across borders, with Fortis NV getting a bailout from Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg while France, Belgium and Luxembourg pumped money into lender Dexia. Germany organized a credit lifeline for Hypo Real Estate Holding AG.