Amidst Perma-Bailouts, BlackRock Spreads its Tentacles in Brussels

`` In 2011 the firm was hired by the Bank of Ireland to forecast how much Irish banks would risk losing and to carry out a "stress test" on worst-case scenarios for the Irish banking system, which had just been bailed out to the tune of €85 billion... Despite providing embarrassingly wayward forecasts, BlackRock Solutions pocketed €30 million for the job. The firm got a similar contract worth €12.3 million from the Bank of Greece and was also hired by the Bank of Cyprus to double-check the methodology used by Pimco to evaluate the recapitalization needs of the Cypriot banking sector... Seven months later, BlackRock announced it would buy 3% of the Bank of Ireland -- one of the banks which its subsidiary, BlackRock Solutions, "stress-tested" in 2011.''