The United States' subprime crisis has turned out to be bigger than previously thought and has the potential to drag the world's largest economy into a recession.
And although there are varying opinions on whether the US could slip into a recession or not, most economists do feel that despite the US Federal Reserve's rate cuts and the Bush administration's $161-billion economic aid plan, chances of a recession are high.
Be that as it may, one thing is for certain: the losses from the subprime that financial majors have incurred will take a long time to get over.
Given below, in the table, are the estimated losses that some of the world's largest banks have suffered on account of home loan defaults in the US. The total figure adds up to over $76 billion and does not take into account losses suffered by many other financial majors that had an exposure to the crisis.
Four Indian banks -- State Bank of India [Get Quote], ICICI Bank [Get Quote], Bank of Baroda [Get Quote], and Bank of India too have big exposure to credit derivatives, with the spreads on these widening since international lenders turned risk-averse following the crisis in the US subprime (or high-risk home loan) market.
Credit derivatives are instruments for which the underlying asset is a loan or a bond. Marking to market means valuing a portfolio based on the prevailing market price.
ICICI Bank has the highest exposure of $1.5 billion. SBI has an estimated exposure of $1 billion, BoI of $300 million, and BoB of $150 million. About 5-10 per cent of this figure could be the losses that these banks could incur.
No comments:
Post a Comment