Archive for September, 2008
The Euro banks too big for their own backyards?
Posted by robin in Financial Articles Market Commentary Tuesday September 30, 2008 1:56 pm
Following a day when the partisan squabbles of Congress were on display as never before to a world in thrall to the mother of all bail-out plans…and five US and European banks were rescued or nationalised, this for me is the chart of the day from the FT…
These are the European banks whose assets, as of 2007, exceeded the GDP’s of the nations which house them.
| European Banks | ||||
| Country | Bank | Total assets | ||
| to % of GDP | ||||
| Belgium/ | Dexia | 173.3 | ||
| Luxembourg | Fortis | 254 | ||
| KBC | 101.9 | |||
| Cyprus | Bank of Cyprus | 252.5 | ||
| France | BNP Paribas | 104.4 | ||
| Iceland | Kaupthing | 622.5 | ||
| Landsbanki | 374.3 | |||
| Ireland | Bank of Ireland | 102 | ||
| Netherlands | ING | 289.6 | ||
| Rabobank | 120.6 | |||
| Spain | Santander | 131.8 | ||
| Switzerland | Credit Suisse | 289.7 | ||
| UBS | 484 | |||
| UK | RBS | 126.4 | ||
| Source: FT, 30 Sept 2008 | ||||
| And my ’back of the envelope’ comparative for the big US banks… | ||||
| US | Bank of America | 12.4 | ||
| Citibank | 15.2 | |||
| JP Morgan Chase | 14.5 | |||
| Wells Fargo | 3.5 | |||
| Sources: CIA , Citibank and nyjobsource.com | ||||
Yesterday’s asset may be today’s toxic waste for all we know, but small wonder it took the combined effort of three countries - Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands - to stump up €11.2bn to bail-out of Fortis bank.
More gold anyone?
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