This weekend has seen two major European financial institutions forced into the hands of government and a third on the verge of major new asset writedowns and job cuts. The events highlight the fragility of European banking and the need for concrete solutions at the upcoming G-20 summit in London.
First, in the UK, you [...]

This comes via Angus Robertson of Research Recap:
The performance of auto loan securities has been mixed, but Standard & Poor’s Credit Research points out that overall ratings on the ABS have been remarkably stable in spite of the recession.
In a new report on the sector, S & P says that delinquencies and write-downs among certain auto loan [...]

This comes via Angus Robertson at Research Recap. Just as the RMBS post yesterday confirmed, moe writedowns are coming in other credit classes:
In a trend likely to accelerate in 2009, the default rate on bank loans to speculative-grade corporations rose sharply in 2008 and recovery rates on leveraged loans dropped over the same period, [...]

Today, I want to make the case for seeing writedowns as central to this global downturn. To do so, we need to rewind and compare what is going on today with what we have experienced in the past. Drawing on this comparison, I can demonstrate that traditional policy tools are likely to be ineffective today. Moreover, the present course of action will also prove inadequate. Other more aggressive means must be applied in order to ensure a more stable banking system and a path to recovery. Likely remedies will include a reorganization of large swathes of the U.S. banking system.

While most people have their attention tuned to the spectacle over at AIG, financial institutions in Europe are having their own difficulties. In the last day, I have seen news stories of European banks looking for ways to raise capital in order to shore up their weakening balance sheets. Let me focus on three stories in particular: Nordea, Bank Austria and HVB.

Below is an interview with an expert on the issue of mortgage cramdowns. Basically, this issue is all about debt forgiveness for borrowers and writedowns for lenders. Lenders do not like cramdowns for that reason. See below for a view on cramdowns from Paul Van Valkenburg of the Mortgage Industry Advisory Corp.

Warning: you should expect him to have a negative bias given who he works for. I actually like cramdowns. Van Valkenburg is looking at this from an investor’s perspective and wants senior creditors not to be negatively impacted by the coming cramdown legislation. Nevertheless, I am posting this video because it is informative as to the impacts on mortgage-backed securities, mortgage servicing and housing.

This news comes via Reuters:
Bank of America Corp is carrying loans on its balance sheet marked at more than $44 billion above their fair value, the company said in its annual report filed with U.S. regulators on Friday.
The bank said it ended 2008 with $886.2 billion in loans, but estimated the fair value — or [...]

Royal Bank of Scotland just reported a record loss for a Britsh company of £24.1 billion pounds. That’s about £400 for every living soul in the country:

Chris Whalen, a well-regarded bank analyst, ran an interview piece with Nouriel Roubini on Barry Ritholtz’s site. The conversation was very illuminating and I highly recommend reading the whole post linked below. However, I wanted to point out a quote from Chris in the piece that I find significant in light of the recent dividend [...]

This morning, Commerzbank, based in Frankfurt, Germany, released earnings, showing a loss of 809 million euros, which was better than expected. Shares are rallying in European trading as a result. However, the big news was the draconian solution the bank has taken to eliminate its dividend and halt all bonuses to preserve cash and increase capital — an example I expect to set the gold standard for beleaguered banks going forward.