Running on Empty

Fitch Ratings actually said an unkind word about a company before it goes on life support, two companies actually.

``Barclays and BNP and Societe Generale are clearly running on very thin capital ratios,'' Krishnan Ramadurai, a managing director at Fitch's financial institutions group, said at a conference in Tokyo today. ``A number of them need to come to the capital markets to raise capital.''

Oh no not I said BNP Paribas we have lots of cash.

``We don't understand the interpretation made of Fitch's presentation,'' BNP Paribas spokeswoman Celine Castex wrote in an e-mail today. Fitch said in an April 11 report that BNP Paribas's Tier 1 ratio, a measure of capital strength, was ``satisfactory,'' BNP Paribas said.

Sound familiar, does to us too and even Fitch ain't buyin a bit of it.

``Fitch confirmed to us today that their opinion had not changed,''