--Euro-zone finance ministers set to consider changes to the senior creditor status of euro zone's new bailout fund
--New Greek government may get 1 billion euros in withheld funds as "goodwill" gesture, officials say
--Spain, Cyprus could formally request assistance from euro zone
--Finance ministers face difficult choices on Greek program changes
(Adds details on developments on Spain's expected formal request for financial assistance, plans for Greek economic reform, possibility of a financial-transaction tax.)
By Vanessa Mock
BRUSSELS--Spain could become the fourth euro-zone country to make a formal request for financial help from other members of the currency bloc during a two-day meeting of European finance ministers that begins Thursday.
The likely request, coming in the wake of the formation of a new Greek government and amid expectations that Cyprus will also ask for a bailout, is aimed at bolstering the capital of Spain's banks, many of which are struggling from losses caused by a collapsing real-estate market.
Ministers will also discuss ways to put Greece on the narrow path of economic reform while also dangling the promise of relaxing some of terms of its bailout in future, officials said.
European Union finance ministers could also decide whether to press ahead with a financial-transaction tax among a smaller group of nine member states.
The meeting in Luxembourg comes amid heightened expectations that the EU's bailout funds could soon be activated to take the heat off Spain, Italy and other debt-laden countries by intervening directly in bond markets, a move floated by Italian Premier Mario Monti to bring down borrowing costs.
"We are just thinking about what instruments might actually be useful to relieve the tension on the market and it seems to me only natural," a spokesman for the European Commission in Brussels said Wednesday.
Although ministers aren't expected to address this proposal explicitly, they could change the senior creditor status that would apply to the EU's new bailout fund, a move that would seek to reverse the negative market reaction to the euro zone's promise to rescue Spanish banks to the tune of up to 100 billion euros ($126 billion).
Under current rules, any aid provided to Spain by the European Stability Mechanism would enjoy preferred creditor status, an issue that could fuel fears by private investors that their rights would be subordinated to those of official lenders. People familiar with the matter Wednesday said ministers could signal that they intend to put private bond holders on an equal footing with official lenders.
"It's one of the important points of the discussion," an EU official said.
Madrid's formal request for aid is set to come shortly after two separate evaluations of its banking sector are published on Thursday, although it was unclear if this would come on the same day. The reports will give an estimate of total capital needs of the banks and would determine the size of assistance, which could come from the ESM or from the region's temporary bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, officials said.
The ESM is due to come into force in July.
Ministers may also discuss calls by Spain and others for the bailout fund to be able to be deployed to inject capital directly into banks, bypassing governments and breaking the link between banks and sovereign borrowers, though a decision on this is unlikely.
Cyprus, whose banking sector has been battered over its exposure to Greek sovereign debt, is also poised in coming days to make a request for targeted aid, albeit on a far smaller scale than Spain's.
Officials on the Mediterranean island, which has the 15th-largest economy in the 17-nation euro zone, have signaled they could split their request for around EUR8 billion in aid between the euro zone and Russia, a country that has already extended loans to the government.
Euro-zone finance ministers are set to meet a day after Greece's conservative New Democracy party leader Antonis Samaras was sworn in as prime minister.
Officials have sought to damp speculation that the tight strings attached to Greece's bailout program could be loosened as a gesture of goodwill toward the new government, formed after two rounds of nail-biting elections. Ministers will demand a cast-iron commitment from the new authorities that they will stick to conditions of the bailout and come up with EUR11.6 billion or more in new austerity measures demanded by the country's creditors.
"There can be no discussion on revisiting the terms of the Greece's bailout before we get the signal from them that they are going to honor their commitments. People are tired of shelling out money for Greece," said one EU diplomat familiar with the discussion.
Any extension of the targets would also ramp up the cost of the Greek bailout, something which Germany, the euro zone's main paymaster, and others have signaled would be highly unpalatable politically.
However, ministers may well consider disbursing EUR1 billion in bailout funds that had been withheld in May, two people familiar with the situation said. The aid would be targeted almost exclusively to pay Greece's EUR900 million contribution to the ESM.
"It's a symbolic gesture, that we would again be giving funds to a Greek government," an EU official said. The funds had been withheld after the Greek elections on May 6 failed to produce a government.
On Friday, finance ministers from all of the EU's 27 member states will gather for talks that will focus on a controversial levy on banks. Britain and Sweden are fiercely opposed to the financial-transaction tax but France and Germany may formally request plans for a smaller group of nine countries to move forward on the measure.
If endorsed, the move would by a major policy shift by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had previously supported such a tax in principle but only if endorsed by all of the EU's members. Key differences remain over how proceeds of a financial-transaction tax should be spent, with France pushing to use the money for the EU budget, a proposal Germany currently opposes.
Write to Vanessa Mock at vanessa.mock@dowjones.com.
--Matina Stevis and Laurence Norman contributed to this article.
Spain's finance minister insists no bailout needed - CBC
Spain's finance minister insisted again Wednesday that the country's government does not need a full-blown bailout, even as the country's sky-high borrowing costs remained at dangerous levels.
On Tuesday, the interest rate on the government's 12-month treasury bills rose to 5.07 per cent from 2.98 per cent at the last such auction on May 14. The rate on the 18-month bills soared to 5.10 per cent from 3.3 per cent.
By Wednesday, the interest rate, or yield, on the Spanish benchmark 10-year bond fell 22 basis points to 6.78 per cent, below the seven-per-cent level it has been hovering above since Monday. But such high rates are still considered by market-watchers to be unsustainable over the long term rate and eventually forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to ask for international financial help.
Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro told Parliament, however, that Spain's government won't need the same kind of assistance "because it does not need to be rescued."
After years of insisting its banks were among the healthiest in Europe, Spain did recently acknowledge its financial sector will need a rescue package to protect it from a property boom that went bust in 2008. But investors are now more concerned that the country itself may have to be bailed out and this could seriously test the strength of the entire European Union's finances.
Fears about high public debt
Worries about Spain's ability to repay its debt grew last week when the country agreed to accept a eurozone loan of up to $129 billion to shore up its ailing banks, which are sitting on massive amounts of soured real estate investments.
The big fear is that, as the money will count as a loan and raise Spain's overall debt load, the country's financing costs will suffocate the government as it tries to wade its way through a recession and a 24.4 percent jobless rate.
Because the government is ultimately responsible for repaying the banks' bailout money, the deal has increased fears about the size of public debt. If the government cannot get the bailout money back from the banks, it will be saddled with the losses.
Those losses could prove too much to handle for the government, which is already struggling with a second recession in three years and the highest jobless rate among the 17 countries that use the euro.
Independent audits on the state of Spain's banks are due Thursday and these will help Spain determine how much it needs from the $129-billion lifeline the 17-country eurozone has agreed to set up.A valuable lesson in pocket money - The Independent
No wonder experts say parents should introduce their children to basic financial matters at an earlier age than ever. "Teaching children the value of money from an early age provides a good foundation for their future spending habits, and sends positive messages about managing finances and living within one's means," explains Simon Walsh, spokesman for Family Lives. "Their observations of how you spend, save, budget and donate to charities can shape early views about money management."
Get them involved in making their own financial decisions too. "My eight-year-old son Henry knows that if he wants something, he must select a few items he no longer wants, photograph them, write a description and put them on eBay," says Rebecca Gunn, 39, who lives in Bedfordshire.
Like many parents, Gunn also uses pocket money to help her son to understand its value. "It stops him walking into a shop wanting everything he sees. It makes him think about what he wants and he enjoys weighing up the pros and cons of things as the week goes on."
Research from Equifax reveals a growing emphasis on encouraging children to "earn" their pocket money through basic chores such as washing up and tidying up. The average amount children receive, according to another survey by Halifax, is £4.57 for 8-11 year-olds and £7.02 for 12-15 year olds. "Each of my two children, aged five and seven, has a special job around the house once a week," says Sarah Brown, a 40-year-old mother from Kent. "It means they realise they need to contribute something to earn money."
A vital component of the pocket money concept, she believes, is that kids discover their own spending power. "This is where, as a parent, you have to get the balance right between parental advice and allowing your child to make their own decisions – and therefore mistakes. It's definitely given my children an understanding, which did not exist a year ago, of how important it is to know how much things cost," says Brown. "Even simple things like checking the price tag on the box to see if it's affordable, is not something you see many kids do. Perhaps most satisfying of all is that my eldest, has opened a bank account and is already beginning to grasp the concept of interest."
When your children hit their teens, consider swapping pocket money for a monthly allowance, but the same principles apply, advises Pritee Chohan, Money for Life Programme volunteer and a branch manager for Halifax. "Sit them down to explain the differences between the savings accounts on offer and help them to budget for that holiday with friends or for driving lessons. By the time they leave home, they should have all the money savvy they need to make a great start in life."
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