Читать книгу Retos y desafíos de las garantías reales - Abel B. Veiga Copo - Страница 78

The private banks are and always have been eminent important players in providing monetary support for states. Syndicated loans are nowadays a common and prominent feature in the realm of state financing. Banks form a special category of lenders because they have copied the model of states as lenders and have established what is commonly known as London Club. Like its continental counterpart from Paris, it is legally a non-existing institution31 but yet a very influential one32. When borrowing states face difficulties with repaying loans from such banks, the London Club will become activated and negotiations will be commenced about solutions or restructurings. All this is established in close correspondence to the Paris Club33 and they have in common a couple of success stories, too.

The credit relationship between states and banks is time-honored. Half a millennium ago bankers such as Medici, de Vaille, Gualterotti, Bonvisi, Fugger, Welser etc. have already lent money to the kings and rulers. As a matter of fact, this interrelationship has always been dense34 and has, probably intensified through its long duration, turned into a danger in itself35. In a kind of symbiotic mutual support this “couple” has intertwined its respective interests so indissolubly that the collapse of one side tends to provoke the collapse of the other. Not only that in the 16th century the bankers’ family Welser from South Germany went bankrupt because of a state default of king Philipp II from Spain36; the same kind of entanglement could be observed only recently in the cases of Iceland, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, etc. and many more often times today and in the past. The constant threat resulting from the equation that bank insolvencies have the potential to trigger a state insolvency and vice versa is the consequence of the states’ never-ending need of money that is met by banks in “consideration” for supportive legislation37. For instance, to declare sovereign bonds to be risk-free investment38 is helpful for the bank’s incentive to buy sovereign bonds but has always defied and still defies reality.