Barclays Fincl Chief:Wholesale Money Mkt Conditions Improving

10th Jun 2010 17:40

By Patricia Kowsmann Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES LONDON (Dow Jones)--Barclays PLC (BCS) said Thursday that although funding markets have been tougher over the past weeks, conditions have improved recently and that the bank continues to access wholesale money markets "in significant size." "Market conditions have improved over the last week and we are raising unsecured funds longer than one month in term well in excess of daily maturity roll down," Financial Chief Officer Chris Lucas told investors at a Goldman Sachs conference in Madrid. "As we look forward, the environment is likely to remain difficult and turbulent, but we feel well-placed to deal with the challenge," he added in remarks posted on the Barclays website. Worries about sovereign debt in European countries, including Greece, Spain and Portugal, have made lenders to major European banks cautious, potentially creating a credit crunch in the region. Lucas, however, said secured funding markets--where it gets the majority of its wholesale funding needs--have continued to operate normally. He also broke down the bank's exposure to some economies in Europe, saying net wholesale loans and advances to France, Italy, Portugal and Spain were around GBP12 billion at the end of last year, mostly to corporates. At April, its Spanish wholesale exposure was about GBP9 billion. Net retail loans and advances in France, Italy, Portugal and Spain were about GBP40 billion at the end of 2009, of which about GBP35 billion was in mortgages. Spain's exposure accounted to about half of those amounts at the end of April. The bank also said exposure to the Spanish sovereign, and to large corporates and financial institutions, currently total about GBP7 billion. Lucas said the Barclays' provisioning "has been conservative." The bank has said its exposure to Greek government debt was of GBP200 million at the end of the first quarter, while its exposure in the retail and commercial businesses in the country isn't material. -By Patricia Kowsmann, Dow Jones Newswires. Tel +44(0)207-842-9295, [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 10, 2010 12:40 ET (16:40 GMT)