Friday, July 15, 2011

Couple of US banks with exposure to Europe vs 2008 Exposure in Housing

The banks insisted during the summer of 2008 that they were well capitalized and able to withstand substantial write-downs from the housing market. Although we don't know the exact exposure to the PIIGS it looks to me that it's enough to cause some damage should a haircut occur on some of those bonds. This would explain the very poor performance of the financials over the past 2 months.

2008 JP Morgan
As of June 30, 2008 JPMorgan held $19.5 billion of prime and Alt-A mortgage exposure, $1.9 billion of subprime mortgage exposure, and $11.6 billion of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS)
----for a grand total of $32 Billion

2011 JP Morgan
The firm also has about $15 billion in exposure to troubled euro zone nations Spain and Italy, which are struggling under mountains of debt.
----no mention of exposure to any of the other PIIGS, HMMM

2008 Citi
---cant' find exact $$$'s of exposure in 2008 but they did take $57 billion of write downs in 2008 alone

2011 Citi
---Citigroup Estimates It Has $22 Billion at Risk in Five European Countries