On Friday Feb 20th, US banks Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C) fell heavily on huge volume due to nationalization fears. Bank of America fell to $2.53 before ending the day at $3.79 after the White House reassured investors that nationalization was not in the cards. Similarly Citibank closed at $1.95. BAC is down 73.08% so far this year and Citibank is off nearly 71%.
While bank shares in the US are getting decimated, foreign banks are not immune either. In fact some of the global bank stocks have performed equally poorly or even worse than US banks.
The following table shows the Year-To-Date (YTD) performance of global bank ADRs listed on the US organized exchanges:
| Bank Name | Ticker | Last Price | YTD %Change | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corpbanca | BCA | $21.00 | 5.00% | Chile |
| Banco de Chile | BCH | $34.25 | 4.64% | Chile |
| Banco Santander Chile | SAN | $34.70 | -0.94% | Chile |
| Banco Macro | BMA | $9.92 | -8.32% | Argentina |
| Banco Bradesco | BBD | $8.59 | -12.97% | Brazil |
| Westpac Banking | WBK | $51.54 | -14.46% | Australia |
| Credit Suisse | CS | $24.02 | -15.00% | Switzerland |
| Unibanco | UBB | $54.68 | -15.38% | Brazil |
| Banco Itau | ITU | $9.55 | -17.67% | Brazil |
| Woori Finance | WF | $11.70 | -18.01% | Korea |
| Grupo Financiero Galicia | GGAL | $1.80 | -20.35% | Argentina |
| HDFC Bank | HDB | $54.27 | -23.97% | India |
| BBVA Banco Frances | BFR | $2.23 | -25.67% | Argentina |
| Mitsubishi UFJ Financial | MTU | $4.56 | -26.57% | Japan |
| ICICI Bank | IBN | $13.78 | -28.42% | India |
| HSBC | HBC | $34.47 | -29.18% | United Kingdom |
| Bancolombia | CIB | $16.50 | -29.34% | Colombia |
| KB Financial | KB | $18.07 | -31.03% | Korea |
| National Bank of Greece | NBG | $2.62 | -31.23% | Greece |
| UBS | UBS | $9.71 | -32.10% | Switzerland |
| Mizuho Financial | MFG | $3.87 | -32.93% | Japan |
| Banco Santander S.A | STD | $6.28 | -33.83% | Spain |
| Shinhan Financial | SHG | $30.56 | -35.20% | Korea |
| Deutsche Bank | DB | $24.23 | -40.45% | Germany |
| Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria | BBV | $7.43 | -40.51% | Spain |
| Barclays Bank | BCS | $5.53 | -43.57% | United Kingdom |
| Lloyds Banking Group | LYG | $3.25 | -57.79% | United Kingdom |
| Royal Bank of Scotland | RBS | $5.54 | -63.48% | United Kingdom |
| Bank of Ireland | IRE | $1.68 | -64.78% | Ireland |
| Allied Irish Banks | AIB | $1.60 | -65.88% | Ireland |
Chart:
Note: All data as of Feb 20, 2008
As seen from the table and chart above, only two Chilean banks, Corpbanca (BCA) and Banco De Chile (BCH), are up this year. The Irish and British banks are the worst performing banks globally.
Today The Times reports that RBS will be split into good bank and bad bank as part of a radical restructuring plan. Last month Ireland nationalized the Anglo Irish Bank but ruled out the nationalization of the other two banks - Bank of Ireland (IRE) and Allied Irish Bank (AIB). Overall banks in the developed world have performed worse than the ones in the emerging markets year to date.
