Posted on 02/13/2008 10:17:05 PM PST by bruinbirdman
The Financial Services Agency announced Wednesday that Japanese financial institutions incurred losses of 600 billion yen from April to December 2007 on investments related to U.S. subprime mortgages.
As of the end of December, Japanese financial institutions held about 1.52 trillion yen worth of securitized products backed by risky home loans, according to the financial watchdog.
Total losses--taking into account financial products sold, and various other factors --came to 442 billion yen. Appraisal losses on these products--as values fell after the products were obtained--reached 158 billion yen.
The 600 billion yen losses registered during the period more than doubled from a previous survey for April to September 2007. The figure is smaller than that of institutions in the United States and European countries, but there is a possibility that Japanese financial institutions' losses could expand further.
By business category, the losses suffered by large financial institutions, including major financial groups and the Norinchukin Bank, reached 542 billion yen--more than double that of the April-September period. Losses incurred by first- and second-tier regional banks totaled 37 billion yen, and cooperative organizations, including credit unions, lost 21 billion yen.
The survey was conducted via interviews.
The FSA only calculated losses incurred on securitized products directly related to subprime loans.
Time for the Yakuza to pay Mozilo from countrywide a visit.
That’s US$6 billion for all Japanese banks. That’s chump change. Unless there is a lot more hidden (always a possibility) looks as if Japan dodged a bullet.
If Japan announced it, this can’t be a big deal.
That's 4th quarter thru Dec. 31.
"Mizuho Financial Group Inc. and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., the country's top two lenders by assets, said in January that subprime losses for the current fiscal year through March will likely grow to a combined 490 billion yen (US$4.57 billion; €3.14 billion). Japan's third-biggest lender, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., booked subprime losses of 67 billion yen (US$625 million; €430 million) for October-December alone, on top of 32 billion yen (US$299 million; €206 million) for its fiscal first half." - AP
yitbos
No, your article says April to 31 December. Japanese fiscal year ends on 31 March, so it may be that the Japanese are housecleaning now so that the year end numbers look a little better.
It appears as though there will be more to shake out in Japan.
yitbos
Japan and the rest of Asia are looking pretty good right now, though—a little better than most days the past few weeks, AFAIK. [Link only allowed from Bloomberg. ...no reprints on Free Republic.]
http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/stocks/wei_region3.html
Some days you get the bear, and some days the bear gets you.
That is 88.5888 trillion Vietnamese Dong but 5.54 billion dollars.
As in, there are 100 Dungs in one U.S.A. penny. If you have $100 in Communist Vietnam, you are a millionaire.
yitbos
Sorry, I hit the wrong key- that’s Dong. and it is 159.5 to the penny at the moment. What bothers me is that that number is getting smaller as the dollar depreciates. The next time I go back it’s going to cost more.
yitbos
I really have to wonder if Middle Eastern oil money or chinese investements were exposed in this setup.
Would that be a Mill-dung-aire?
ThanhPhero says the dung is actually 159 to a penny. Maybe Bloomberg thinks anything below 100 would make it virtually zero also. Perhaps no one in Vietnam uses dungs for currency. Who wants to carry around pockets full of dung anyway.
In Ecuador they use American greenbacks as official currency. They also have a "sucre", funny money that is worthless.
yitbos
Bank of China's subprime exposure reported to hurt 2007 earnings.
"Bank of China disclosed in August it held US$9.65 billion in subprime backed securities, but trimmed the amount to US$7.95 billion in the third quarter and set aside US$322 million for potential losses. . . ."
But then, I really trust when ChiComs' report on themselves. They are so well known for transparency when they say they will use capitalism to destroy the free enterprise system.
yitbos
The dong has tracked the dollar pretty closely for the last 6 or 7 years and is a pretty solid currency.After their period of insane inflation in the 80s to 90s the government decided it needed to rationalize the money as part of getting to a functioning market economy. The size of the individual unit of the currency is not related to how “good” the money is. That is a function of stability and Viet Nam has done a pretty good job of keeping the money stable over the last several years. Also with the tiny unit and the lack of “big” bills you have to carry around a pretty good wad of currency to buy stuff, not so much that it is a real pain but enough that money just doesn’t get stolen, not at street level. Little kids walk around with what looks like a lot of money but it is 20-30 cents to an American kid. The country reintroduced coins last year and the smallest is 500 dong.
yitbos
The big Chinese commercial banks have fessed up to around $15 billion of subprime sludge, so far. I am sure there is more. What goes unreported is what the PBOC (their central bank) is holding because this subprime and SIV (enhanced yield stuff)paper is exactly the sort of investment they did like.
I don’t know if it’ll ever come out, but interesting to see.
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