Benchmark interbank dollar costs nudged up on Thursday with dollar financing conditions remaining tight for eurozone borrowers as the sovereign debt crisis kept money markets on edge. Five-year euro/dollar cross currency basis swaps - which measure the cost of borrowing dollars for European names - were near levels last seen in May, at around -35 basis points.
One-year euro/dollar cross currency basis swaps widened to -52 basis points, a level also last seen in May. The one-year basis has widened steadily by 13 bps so far this month, indicating that getting dollar funds for European names has got costlier recently even as the European Central Bank has extended its refinancing operations.
Traders said some of the widening in basis swaps may have been due to thin year-end markets and also caused by pressure on banks to remain fully funded going into year-end as well as a general unwillingness to lend funds. "There's an increasing cost for US dollar liquidity for the European names and this is reflected in the widening of the cross currency spreads," said Giuseppe Maraffino, a rate strategist at Barclays Capital.
London interbank offered rates for three-month dollars inched up to 0.30375 percent from 0.30188 percent. Equivalent euro Libor, however, was fixed lower at 0.94688 percent from 0.95000 percent as the level of cash in the euro system hit a three-month high ahead of the repayment of the ECB's third and final portion of one-year loans at the end of the month. European markets were reminded of persistent investor anxiety over the debt crisis after Spain was forced on Thursday to pay a high premium for borrowing in its last bond auction of the year.
Financial markets are now looking to European Union leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday for their end-of-year summit to come up with measures to overcome a crisis that threatened to bring the currency bloc to its knees this year. Comments by Ireland's main opposition party that it wants to renegotiate the country's EU/IMF bailout to make holders of senior bank debt not covered by a government guarantee share the cost of bailing out the sector also kept investors on edge.
The basis between the Markit iTraxx Senior Financials credit default swaps and the iTraxx financial subordinated index compressed on the news, reflecting market strains, according to data provider Markit.
"This Irish statement yesterday introduced the possibility of senior bank bond holders sharing in the burden, and that introduced another element into the issue so there's tension coming from both sides," said Markit analyst Gavan Nolan. Maraffino and other strategists, however, say they do not expect a blow-out in dollar funding costs for European borrowers that was witnessed in May because of the ECB's weekly dollar liquidity injections.
In liquidity tender operations banks receive dollar funds against collateral. There is now no limit to the amount banks can borrow while the interest rates in tenders are now fixed. However, demand has been muted as the interest charged is above market interest rates.
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