The EU is collecting evidence to determine if Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy should face an investigation into whether they are illegally underwriting banks that have bolstered their capital with assets considered low-grade in the rest of the eurozone.
At issue are so-called deferred tax assets, which are accepted as core capital in the four southern European countries, but which are not regarded by the European Central Bank as “high quality”.
A full probe by Brussels into the legality of the way that governments guarantee these assets would pose a severe challenge for southern European banking systems that are still struggling to recover from the eurozone crisis.
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