Posted on 05/11/2010 7:25:28 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The names are distressingly familiar:
Fortis (FORSY).
Dexia (DXBGF).
Société Générale (SCGLY).
BNP Paribas (BNPQY).
ING (ING).
Barclays (BCS).
Deutsche Bank (DB).
Remember them? They were so neck-deep in the Lehman/AIG/mortgage-backed-assets debacle that they required government bailouts. (Deutsche Bank may quibble. It got its cash from American International Group (AIG, news, msgs), so, technically, I suppose it didn't get government money. But because the AIG payout used cash from a government bailout of that company, I think it's a distinction without a difference.)
And now? Well, these companies all make the shortlist of European banks most at risk in the Greek debt crisis. The European Union's $1 trillion bailout doesn't do anything to change the risk of these individual banks. It merely puts in place a mechanism for a rescue.
Want to know how dangerous the Greek (soon to become the Greek-Spanish) crisis is? Look at these banks. (For more on Spain's progress toward crisis, see this blog post on my website.)
Want to understand why this is serious but not a replay of the chaos that followed on the collapse of Lehman Brothers? Look at these banks.
Want to know why investors are right to worry about contagion and the risk that other banks will catch what these banks have? Look at these banks.
OK, let's start with the data on how much money is at risk at each bank. (The Financial Times put this all together in a table in its Thursday paper.)
Fortis holds $5 billion in Greek bonds. Dexia holds $4 billion. Société Générale $5.2 billion. BNP Paribas $8 billion. ING $4.6 billion. Barclays $6 billion. And Deutsche Bank $2.6 billion. Altogether, that's a hefty $35.4 billion in Greek bonds.
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.moneycentral.msn.com ...
Bail out your banks, let thieving countries fail.
Socialism Fail !
BTW, one of the banks mentioned above is Barclay’s. They just acquired a huge chunk of the now defunk Lehman Brothers business.
btt
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