Here comes the next market mover. Moody's Investors Service is apparently doing some due diligence work on Austria's banks. Austria and its banks have been overlooked in the daily market game of who gets downgraded next until now. Austria still carries a AAA sovereign rating from all Moody's, S&P and Fitch. Austrian banks have done surprisingly well during EU wide downgrading orgies by the big 3 rating agencies. This may be about to change, given this indication from my webstats.
SCREENSHOT: Moody's Investors Service starts checks on Austria and its banks with a 'Go ogle' search on "Austrian banks derivatives". Click to enlarge.
Moody's landed at this story from October 2010: Austrian Banks Carry €2.6 Trillion in Derivatives - Risk Unknown To Central Bank Being behind the curve must be a tradition at Moody's. Here is the 2011 update: It Takes Only a 4% Adverse Move and Austria's Banks Are Out of Business. Of Austria's top 6 banks, only Erste Group and Raiffeisen Bank International are listed. Both banks saw their share prices drop like all other banks recently. Erste Group 'corrected' its 2011 outlook from a €800 million profit in September to a €800 million net loss only 12 days later, raising eyebrows on the way it had accounted its derivatives until then. Austria's biggest bank, Bank Austria, is a 100% subsidiary of troubled Italian Unicredit.
