Philip Gvinter

European Banks To Consider - Barron's

I agree with what Jase says. Those who were proatcive and dumped toxic assets early and were honest and transparent enough to take the writedowns sooner rather than later will emerge in a position of leadership, those who played accounting games in order to hide losses and hope for a market turnaround will emerge as the laggards if they emerge at all. In my opinion the issue at hand is still the determination of what kind of earnings expectations will be realistic for the emerging leaders in financial services. A significant decrease in future earning and a return to more conservative P/E ratios can still spell a serious decline in share price.

European Banks To Consider - Barron's

I am not a fan of HSCB. They are not as conservatively run as many assume. They quickly jumped in to low quality ALT-A mortgage origination in the US and I assume that this is more indicative of current management culture than the previous reputation for conservatism