The following is a list of write-downs from major banking and investment banking institutions. The numbers are current and cover write-downs from November, 2007. The write-downs include the following: subprime mortgage loans, leveraged loan commitments and other assets.
UBS (UBS): $37.4 billion Citigroup (C): $21.2 billion (expected further loss of $18 billion in Q1, 2008) Merrill Lynch (MER): $19.4 billion Morgan Stanley (MS): $12.9 billion Deutsche Bank (DB): $7.1 billion Bank of America (BAC): $5.7 billion Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS): $5.6 billion Credit Suisse (CS): $4.7 billion Goldman Sachs (GS): $3.7 billion Lehman Brothers (LEH): $3.3 billion Barclays PLC (BCS): $3.3 billion JPMorgan (JPM): $2.9 billion Bear Stearns (BSC): $2.75 billion HSBC Holdings (HBC): $2.1 billion
In a recent investing blog post, I wrote that we’re currently in a catch-22 type situation. I very much doubt these will be the only losses recorded, and some of the companies mentioned above haven’t even begun to re-price their assets to market value. One such example is Lehman Brothers. It has one of the largest exposures, on a percentage basis, of the types of assets that have soured over the past six months. Yet its write-downs are minuscule compared to its competitors - Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley. I would also mention that Bear Stearns never really came clean on its assets, but as I wrote in an earlier investing blog post, JP Morgan said that it would not have purchased Bear without the $30 billion (now $29 billion) backstop from the Federal Reserve.
What does this all mean? It means that many of these banks, and in particular the investment banks, have lots more to disclose and, in my humble opinion, would benefit from vetting it all right now and begin the rebuilding process. Of course, vetting large write-downs could cause further run-on-the-bank type situations, which Lehman and Merrill, especially, are incredibly worried about.
