MARKETS' ATTENTION NOW TURNS TO TROIKA GREEK TRIP - Today three years ago, Ireland woke up to find that Brian Lenihan was guaranteeing Irish banking system. The bail-out guaranteed the state would honour all deposits and committed it to underwriting the €440 billion worth of bank borrowings.
Then, we thought the crisis was just about Ireland. But today lots of European banks are facing big solvency questions because of their exposure to Greek and other peripheral sovereign debt.
Yesterday there was a vote in the German parliament to increase the size of the euro zone bail-out fund.
Simon Derrick, chief currency strategist at BNY Mellon in London, said the German vote was good news, but the euro zone debt crisis was a long way from over.
He said there were question marks over whether Greece would meet it commitments, and about whether there was enough money in the EFSF rescue fund to help Spain and Italy.
Mr Derrick said German politicians had made it clear that the current position was as far as they were willing to go.
He said the main focus would be on what the troika said about Greece, and if it could receive its next slice of aid of October. Mr Derrick said some comments from Germany and Netherlands had indicated that there was a possibility of increased haircuts on private holders of Greek debt.
He said there was a good chance that the ECB would cut interest rates next week, despite higher German inflation figures this week.
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CURRENCIES - The euro is worth $1.3513 and 86.78p sterling.
