Piigs label too ham-fisted for Barclays

AT BARCLAYS Capital, Piigs won’t fly. The securities unit of London-based Barclays told analysts yesterday not to use the acronym for Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain in notes to clients. The memo was sent to research staff.

The Piigs nickname has grown increasingly popular in the last month as investors dumped assets in the euro zone’s smaller economies due to concerns the countries will struggle to control budget deficits. “By denigrating a nation in the process of trying to describe a financial situation, it sort of puts the people in that country behind the eight ball,” said Peter Sorrentino of Huntington Asset Advisors, who is visiting Italy in March. “It serves no one’s interest. We’re all in the same boat together.”

Investment banks from Citigroup to JPMorgan Chase have used the term in research reports. There were no instances of it in Barclays notes obtained by Bloomberg. – (Bloomberg)