There is no published record of Siemens having a French major bank: and there  are too many holes in this story for comfort

I went all of a wobbly on reading the FT’s story about Siemens ripping 6bn euros out of ‘a major French bank’ earlier on today. But on doing some quick checking via half a dozen sites, I couldn’t trace a relationship between the company and any French bank – major or minor. It wouldn’t be the first time a big company had been secretive about its banking arrangements – but this was such a large amount of money, I couldn’t see how they’d be allowed to have privacy about it under EU law.

Siemens has form when it comes to not trusting banks. Last year they made quite a hoo-hah about applying to form their own bank. In this case, they seem to have ‘parked’ the money at the ECB. I was a tad unclear as to why they might think a junkyard would be any safer than their main bankers, Deutsche.

Anyway, two hours ago, up popped an email alert which had Siemens denying the story via some careful leaks. Well, partly denying it. The line, as they say, is that the German company put the dosh on weekly deposit at the ECB ‘because of the higher interest rates’. Which if true (and I very seriously doubt it) makes what they did irresponsible in the extreme – effectively putting a bank in a threatened position at a time of heightened systemic instability just to make a bit of extra action from the cashpile….which, I have little doubt, they own in the first  place thanks to taxpayers’ money coughed up for QE.

There remains the possibility that this is why Tricky Trichet hastily pumped some dollars into ‘a major eurobank’ last week….now thought by most insiders to have been Credit Agricole. Except that Siemens has no relationship in any shape or form with CredAg.

The FT has been accused on several occasions (by other media and Slog sources) of being something of a repository for things Berlin wants ‘out there’. This morning – see  The Slog’s other new posting today – the dire state of Germany’s bad banks – as I predicted eight days ago – is putting the Merkel government in an even deeper hole. But the French aren’t in a good place either, having as they do three times the exposure to Greek default versus the Germans.

Was the story salted in the FT in order to deflect from Angela Merkel’s woes….and keep little Nico in his place?

Far nastier tricks than this one occur on a daily basis in the field of diplomacy, once described by Talleyrand as ‘the art of lying convincingly’. And the conundrum remains: how could Siemens withdraw 6bn euros from a ‘major French’ bank, when it doesn’t have any such relationship?

All very odd.

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