Via ZeroHedge, an excellent article by Reggie Middleton on the markets ignoring the fundamental problems in Europe whilst the banks hurry to squirrel their cash away with the ECB rather than lend to each other :

For those who have been following me in the Asset Securitization and Pan-European Sovereign Debt Crisis series this may be old news, but let’s go through the exercise anyway. It looks as if we are back to those non-sense games being played by those that manipulate the market. Taking a look at Bloomberg.com’s front page, you’ll see “Stocks, U.S. Futures Rally on Economic Outlook; Yen Weakens, Bonds Decline” (hey, good times are here again) followed directly by “Banks Deposit Record $394 Billion With ECB, Avoiding Loans to One Another”(hey, isn’t this the exact same environment wherein Bear Stearns, then Lehman Brothers collapsed leading the Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to proclaim the end of the financial world was coming?). Then there’s “Covered Bond Sales Surge; Transocean Tumbles: Credit Markets“: Sales of covered bonds are accelerating as investors seek debt backed by collateral amid concern about the creditworthiness of governments and banks.

Okay, let’s take this by the numbers….

Banks Deposit Record $394 Billion With ECB, Avoiding Loans to One Another

June 3 (Bloomberg) — Overnight deposits with the European Central Bank rose to a record yesterday as the sovereign debt crisis made banks wary of lending to each other.

Banks lodged 320.4 billion euros ($394 billion) in the ECB’s overnight deposit facility at 0.25 percent, compared with 316.4 billion euros the previous day, the Frankfurt-based central bank said in a market notice today. That’s the most since the start of the euro currency in 1999. Deposits have exceeded 300 billion euros for the past five days.

Banks are parking cash with the ECB amid investor concern that a 750 billion-euro European rescue package may not be enough to stop the crisis from spreading and spilling into the banking industry. The ECB said on May 31 that banks will have to write off more loans this year than in 2009 and their ability to sell bonds may be hampered as governments seek to finance fiscal deficits.

“The banking crisis is back,” said Norbert Aul, an interest-rate strategist at Commerzbank AG in London. “The news flow over the past few weeks has spooked banks and since nobody knows how exposed individual financial institutions are, it’s deemed safer to park cash with the ECB rather than lend it on.”

This is not just FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt), the banks KNOW that their peers are walking, talking time bombs. Let’s reference the situation in the US with The Next Step in the Bank Implosion Cycle???

Well worth reading in full.