PARIS (MNI) – French banking giant BNP-Paribas Tuesday asked
France’s market watchdog agency to investigate what it called “false
news” about its dollar liquidity position contained in an opinion piece
published by the Wall Street Journal.
The Wall Street journal piece, published earlier Tuesday, quoted an
unidentified BNP executive saying the bank could “no longer borrow
dollars.”
Major French banks, including BNP, have been under intense pressure
in markets this week on worries about their exposure to Greece and
reports that U.S. money market funds are no longer lending dollars to
them. It is also widely believed that Moody’s is close to announcing a
downgrade of the three major French banks — BNP, Societe Generale and
Credit Agricole — to match the ratings assigned by the other agencies.
The Wall Street journal piece exacerbated BNP’s situation, and the
bank’s share price plummeted sharply on Tuesday.
In a one-sentence statement issued at the end of the day Tuesday,
BNP said that it had “asked the Financial Market Authority to open an
investigation following the diffusion of a false news story concerning
its dollar liquidity in a piece published today under the heading of
‘opinions’ in the Wall Street Journal.”
BNP had denied the story earlier in the day, saying it had ample
short-term euro funding as well as net short-term dollar funds worth E60
billion, the Wall Street Journal reported.
–Paris newsroom, +331-42-71-55-40; bwolfson@marketnews.com
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