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In spite of two interest cuts made by the Fed this year, those looking to deposit assets into high-interest savings accounts seem to be multiplying. The reason for this frenzy amongst the financial sector is the digitisation of the market.

What set the financial world ablaze this week? Our weekly round-up of financial news highlights… perfect for those watercooler moments. This week retirement has been the zeitgeist for all ages, with shifts happening for those beginning their contributions and those already drawing their retirement funds alike.

How did Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) do over the last several years?

Political topics are leading to problems in Europe.

In the UK, new home loans hit an 18 month low, presumably as a consequence of fears generated after the Brexit vote. However, prices seem to stay stable in pounds.

Most EU countries undergo the opposite situation as interest rates keep on decreasing, which favors remortgaging and increases the borrowing capacity of new buyers. 

Even though analysts predicted a rise in rate of inflation for August, it remained the same as it was in July at just 0.2%. The measure implemented by the European Central Bank did not help reach the target rate of just under 2%. The ECB is now expected to announce new policy measures. These might be unveiled as soon as next week, since the bank’s rate-setting Governing Council is due to meet on 8 September.

Fed chair Janet Yellen announced Friday the 26th, at the central bank’s annual Jackson Hole summit that she could raise the rates in the second half of 2016. She announced: "In light of the continued solid performance of the labor market and our outlook for economic activity and inflation, I believe the case for an increase in the federal funds rate has strengthened in recent months."

During the symposium of Central bankers at Jackson Hole, Benoit Coeuré, representing the ECB, delivered a speech in which he claimed that interest rates may remain at low levels for a long time still, as long as EU governments don’t engage significant structural reforms and as long as price stability objectives are not met.

German bank Raiffeisenbank Gmund am Tegernsee announced that it will charge a negative interest rate of 0,4% on its private clients deposits above 100.000€. Another German local bank, Skatbank, made a similar move earlier this year.

Although this practice is still unusual for private deposits, it became widespread in Germany on corporate and institutional client’s deposits.

The European Banking Authority released the results of the stress tests on July 29th, which encompassed the 51 systemic banks in the EU. The results have pointed out an especially difficult situation for Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which hadseveral non-performing loans, but also for many banks in intermediary situations, made fragile by the context of low financial margin on credit products, higher cost of risk in some countries, and a need to reinforce their equity-to-debt ratio.

Last 29^th of July, the European Banking Authority released the results of the 2016 EU-wide stress tests. The aim of these tests was to assess the resilience of EU banks and increase confidence in the banking system. Even though the EBA abandoned the “Pass/Fail” marks, only one bank was insolvent after the three-year adverse scenario of the test, the Italian bank Monte dei Paschi, which is reassuring for the European banking sector. 

As announced in April 2015, GE Capital has begun to progressively abandon its European Operations to refocus on its industrial activities. 14 months since the announcement, several exit deals have already been concluded. The first significant deal was concluded with Santander Santander which agreed to acquire GE Money Bank AB, GE Capital's consumer finance business in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The latest deal was the sale of the French Unit to Cerberus on June 2016. Most recently, GE made an IPO with its Czech branch, which now operates under the name Moneta.

BNP Paribas International Buyers has presented its new Market Observatory for foreign non-resident home buyers in France. It shows a 29% growth in the transactions involving foreign non-resident buyers. Most represented nationalities are American (+91%) and UK buyers. Moreover, French expatriates represent a significant share of the non-resident market at ~30% of transactions.

TheMortgage Credit Directive 2014/17/EU adopted on 4 February 2014 must be enforced in all EU Member State Countries beginning March 2016. The directive applies to both secured credit and home loans. It provides a uniform operational scheme across the EU, addressing and normalizing  areas such as consumer creditworthiness assessment, provisions on early repayment, and provisions on foreign currency loans. Consumer rights are reinforced through mandatory pre-contracting information, standardized documentation, conduct of business obligations, and competence and knowledge requirements for staff. Eventually, the directive should favor the emergence of a single market for financial services (e.g. passports for credit intermediaries who meet the admission requirements in their home Member State).