Reply #21: Writedowns By European Banks

[Robbien]

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- The following is a list of subprime and credit market tightening related write-downs made by European banks up to Jan. 30. The banks have taken over $36 billion of charges and write-downs due to the crisis.
Switzerland's UBS AG (UBS) said Jan. 30 it has written off $14 billion for
2007. In December, UBS said it still owned about $29 billion in subprime holdings, but didn't update in January.

HSBC Holding PLC (HBC) of the U.K. Nov. 14 took an $3.4 billion impairment charge on future bad debt at its HSBC Finance Unit for the third quarter. Nov. 26, it moved $45 billion in assets onto its balance sheet after it was forced to bail out two structured investment vehicles, or SIVs.

France's Credit Agricole SA (4507.FR) Dec. 20 said that it would take a $3.7 billion pretax writedown in its 2007 earnings on its super-senior collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, and to strengthen provisions against the group's exposure to specialist bond insurers.

Germany's Deutsche Bank AG (DB) Oct. 31 said it would have to write down around $3.25 billion related to its subprime exposure, mainly on CDOs and residential mortgage-backed securities. It said at the time it didn't expect any fourth-quarter write-downs.

France's Societe Generale SA (13080.FR) Jan. 24 announced a $3.03 billion write-down related to its exposure to the U.S. subprime sector. It wrote-off EUR4.8 billion due to alleged fraud by a single trader.

The U.K.'s Barclays PLC (BCS) Nov. 15 disclosed $2.55 billion of write-downs at its Barclays Capital unit.

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS) of the U.K. Dec. 6 made a total $2.45 billion net write-down on its own and ABN Amro's subprime exposure. It had several billion dollars of exposure to high-grade collateral debt obligations, mezzanine CDOs and subprime mortgages and wrote-down its positions between 10% and 54%.

Switzerland's Credit Suisse Group (CS) Nov. 1 announced a $2 billion write-down, split between leveraged loans it couldn't sell on to investors after demand dried up and for residential- and commercial mortgages and CDOs.

Belgian-Dutch bank Fortis NV (FORSY) Jan. 28 said fallout from the subprime crisis could have an impact of up to $1.48 billion on its bottom line.

Several other European banks, including Lloyds TSB Group PLC (LYG), HBOS PLC (HBOS.LN), and Alliance & leicester PLC (AL.LN) of the U.K., France's BNP Paribas SA (13110.FR), and Germany's Commerzbank AG (CBK.XE) have announced write-downs of under $1 billion.

http://www.easybourse.com/bourse-actualite/credit-agricole/update-at-a-glance-writedowns-by-european-banks-FR0000045072-384248

Although they keep throwing the subprime word around, most of these bad debts sound to me to be leveraged debt instruments.