Global Subprime Review [Housing Tracker]

Seeking Alpha's Housing Tracker is a collection of housing-related excerpts from various sources, grouped by topic. Feel free to post any interesting links on the subject in the comments section below.

U.S. Missteps Are Evident, but Europe Is Implicated. “Experts say European lenders… embraced many of the riskiest practices of their American counterparts, bulking up on risky debt and relying on short-term loans, rather than deposits, to finance their operations… While the deposit guarantees and capital injections deployed in [Europe] might allay the immediate panic, these steps will not necessarily free up credit for European businesses… An ocean of short-term debt issued by European banks is set to come due over the next two quarters, with $375 billion maturing in Q4’08 and another $339B needing to be refinanced in Q1’09… Heavy borrowing has made European banks vulnerable.” (NY Times, Oct. 12) 

Stock Slump Imperils Putin’s Effort to Pump Up Russian Wealth, and His Legacy.  “The global financial crisis has not spared Russia, wiping out roughly a trillion dollars in wealth and forcing the government to adopt a broad rescue plan to shore up banks… For now, the damage has been largely limited to the Russian elite. While Russia’s stock market has plummeted by about two-thirds since May, more than those in the U.S. and Western Europe, the country has not yet developed a broad investor class, and most people have not squirreled away their savings in the market.” (NY Times, Oct. 12)

Yamato Life Files for Bankruptcy, Citing Investments.“Yamato Life Insurance Co., a 98- year-old Japanese insurer, filed for court protection from creditors in the nation's first bankruptcy in the industry in seven years, with debts exceeding assets by ¥11.5 billion ($116 million). A decline in the value of securities holdings widened losses at the Tokyo-based company, whose debts total ¥269.5B, Yamato Life said… The fact that insurers are starting to struggle with their investments is a harbinger that even pension funds may start to suffer given the market environment,'' said Tetsuo Inoue, chief strategist at Proud Asset Management Japan Co.” (Bloomberg, Oct. 10)

Financial Crisis: Major Mortgage Lenders Fail To Pass On Rate Cut. “[UK lender] Abbey announced it was increasing all its tracker home loan deals by 0.5 percentage points, meaning new customers will pay exactly the same as when the bank rate was at 5%. And along with Nationwide, it said it would not be passing on the half percentage point drop in rates to customers through its standard variable rate. Experts suggested other lenders were likely to follow suit to prevent them becoming the best deals on the market and being inundated with applications… Moneyfacts: No building societies at all have offered customers any reductions in their borrowing costs.” (UK Telegraph, Oct. 9)

                              

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