Another side effect of the credit crunch is the lack of availability of cheap debt financing for businesses. Companies have two alternatives: they can hold off on needed financing until the credit markets are more inviting or they can raise money through alternative means like convertible bonds and rights issues (equity offerings). According [...]

I don’t know if you caught the Bloomberg article about the $35 billion in missing writedowns, but I thought it was about time I exposed it. Bloomberg news says:
Banks and securities firms, reeling from record losses resulting from the collapse of the mortgage securities market, are failing to acknowledge in their income statements at [...]

First the banks won’t refinance, then they won’t restructure mortgages, now they’re pulling out all stops in this mortgage mess. They are pulling existing home equity lines of credit. That’s right, in a feeble attempt to save their sorry asses and limit credit losses, you are going to get the shaft. It’s [...]

As the epicenter of the credit crisis has clearly moved to Europe, British Banks are at the center of new developments. However, doubts still exist about how they are valuing their assets and accounting for loan losses. Yester day the Times of London reported that activist investor Knight Vinke is publicly questioning HSBC’s writedowns due to losses from Household International’s loans.

The list below is the largest collection of links related to the present credit crisis on the web. I have been amending this list since May 2008. But, as the list is pretty large now, I have taken care to break it up into different sections. Please use the Index to move around this post and find just what you are looking for.

The Lex column in Yesterday’s FT highlights what many market players are thinking about the company’s £4 billion ($8 billion) rights issue: the economic outlook in the UK is worse than feared.
“The main potential explanation for the apparent excess capital is that the board’s outlook for the real economy is worse than stated. Retail bankers’ [...]

As I predicted on Saturday, HBOS has gotten caught up in the global mortgage meltdown. Bloomberg reports:
HBOS Plc, the U.K.’s biggest mortgage lender, will sell 4 billion pounds ($8 billion) of shares to bolster capital depleted by asset writedowns and a deteriorating housing market.
As the UK housing market has only begun to turn down [...]

If you are looking for companies that have yet to write down massive amounts of losses in this global credit meltdown, look no further than Banco Santander. The Spanish Bank holds a major position in the Spanish mortgage and construction boom. The Spanish property market is heading south quickly and I fully anticipate [...]

Looking through old e-mails, I read an article from the FT in 2006 that surfaced claiming that HBOS (Halifax Bank of Scotland)were poised and ready to go offer loans for 125% of value. That’s right, HBOS thought it a good idea to cover 95% of the house price and loan another 30% over appraised value unsecured as a personal loan.

Now that the UK has joined the housing bust, one must ask where are the massive writedowns that have to be sitting on HBOS’ books? Why aren’t they looking to do another rights issue like RBS? I fully expect some pretty horrific things coming from HBOS as the housing crisis heats up in Britain.

RBS, the second largest British bank behind HSBC, has finally come clean on the credit crisis. The price? An enormous $24 billion in new capital needed. This is a huge story because this does not even begin to discount the credit problems British banks are likely to suffer when the UK market starts [...]