His way Alice Dautry is a child of May 1968You need to know accompany such a processFind the articles of the series of summer onIt has managed our political training as amarkSo far this method of sale was successfulThe unknown lies on the duration of battery lifeThe presidential election of 2007 is crucialIt is thus invited to implement his suggestionsThe final agreement must be balanced for allThe governmental duty are therefore numerousAdvised by Lazard, Dexia had bought Financial Security Assurance (FSA) for 2.6 billion in March 2000. Advised by Goldman Sachs, the Franco-Belgian group comes to convey what was marketable part insurance for $ 810 million. The residual "goodwill" of Financial Security Assurance had been completely to zero in the accounts of the Franco-Belgian group last year. Cost: 1.2 billion. The American subsidiary employs that 380 people on a total of 20,000 people but she began the net result of the leader of the financing of local communities to 3.1 billion euros in 2008. Long regarded as a quiet and efficient Nugget, Financial Security Assurance therefore eventually concentrate all heartburn now eighteen months. Going back.
"A vision of expertise".
"This is not a vision of power but a vision of expertise", explained several times the former President of Dexia, Pierre Richard, on this acquisition. Born in 1996 of the marriage of the credit Communal de Belgium and credit Local de France, Dexia wants to prepare the globalization of financial markets and the trivialisation of credit circuits. In the United States, the reference to the time for financial markets, local communities are more than in Europe of bank loans and they have more recourse to bond. This "disintermediation" of credit seems to score points in Europe.
Its development is closely related to the intervention of specialized bond ("monoline") insurers which reduces the risks taken by investors through their knowledge of risks and their financial note the best possible (AAA).
These "credit enhancers" appeared as early as the 1970s began, in the 1990s, to ensure also the titles of securitization, montages real estate or other claims based. To top it off, some also sell products investment guaranteed to local communities or the structures of securitization for investment to their cash. This activity, so-called "financial products", akin to the bank processing: the boosters are a margin placing funds in financial portfolios.
As of September 2007, Financial Security Assurance is concerned about the effects of the US real estate crisis on its risk.
The nugget starts to weigh on the accounts of Dexia in the first quarter of 2008. A cold shower for investors. The predecessor of Pierre Mariani, Axel Miller, led an audit specialization in the second quarter. "There were endless discussions to the Board of Directors," recalls a former manager. "Well you saw the problem." FSA presented a volatility disproportionate for a group such as Dexia.
A too high risk
A sale would be expensive and, even if the combination of the risks of the different activities has concerns about, the leaders of Dexia buffered: no radical decision is made. End of June 2008, Dexia agrees a line of credit of $ 5 billion to its subsidiary. The financial panic of autumn changes the background gives fundamentally. "It was not the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, it went out," is still persuaded a former of Dexia.
In any case, in the fall of 2008, the Franco-Belgian group suffered losses on its own portfolio bond, now oversized, and cannot refinance to markets. He needs the help of Belgian, French and Luxembourg States to recapitalise and guarantee its loans. It is more than size FSA risk. Across the Atlantic, the crisis contracted bond of communities. It has weakened the balance most of the "monoline" and it accelerates applications for repayment of the clients of the pole "financial products". FSA is not most point of the "monoline" but it too high risk to its parent.
