Spring is approaching, and many people are think of brightening up their homes with a new coat of paint, what colour’s would spruce up the house best, what kind of paint, gloss or silk paint, and of course hours of debate before the final choice. We all know however that before you put the final coat on the walls, you need an undercoat.
Many comments are being made that the eurozone is improving, heading in the right direction, problems behind us now. The question you have to ask is, is this gloss or something else. Let me explain, in the last 36 hours, the Dutch government has just nationalized their fourth largest bank, SND Reaal to the tune of €3.7 billion. Today, the French Bank , Credit Agricole has announced a €2.6 billion write down, and also the Spanish bank , Banco Popular announced a €2.4 billion loss.
This is just a snap shot of 36 hours, not over days and weeks.
However in the Nordic countries, things are much better, Swedbank almost trebled their profits to SKr 4.98 billion, and Nordea announced that their quarterly profit was €1.1 billion. I think that these figures show that the financial markets in Europe are still very volatile, and will continue for the rest of the year. I suspect that there will be a few more banks hitting the headlines before the Summer arrives.
I will leave the answer to the question concerning paint up to the individual reader, but if you are requiring a company with a real insight of the European equipment leasing market, a company with over 20 years experience, I would politely suggest that you have found the company that has the ability, both financial and sales, to help you in whatever european leasing programme that you wish to launch this year