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 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’ [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Since the housing bubble created a global credit crunch in June 2007 after Bear Stearns announced the collapse of two funds it ran (its High-Grade Structured Credit Fund and its High Grade Structured Credit Enhanced Leveraged Fund), there have been a massive number of announced write-offs and bank failures. As a result, a number [...]

The credit bubble has claimed its first major finance company: Bear Stearns. The venerable firm, which traded as high as $160 in 2007 and was trading above $60 just last week, was bought for a mere $2 per share by rival JP Morgan Chase and Co.
From my point of view, this is the first [...]