by Gabriel Lacroix | Monday, 5 May 2008

Hundreds of companies around the world have been affected by the turmoil in the financial markets. US$220 billion has been lost to date in what has been described as the biggest credit loss since the Great Depression. The 10 biggest losers of the sub-prime crisis are:

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Citigroup: After revealing another US$12 billion in sub-prime losses a few weeks ago, this US bank has emerged as the biggest loser of the global credit crunch, with losses totalising US$40 billion to date;
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UBS: Switzerland’s biggest bank reported a further US$19 billion of assets write-downs, taking total credit losses to US$38 billion;
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Merrill Lynch: Wall Street’s most aggressive player in the housing market has lost more than US$31.7 billion so far;
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HSBC: After a decline in the US housing market hit the value of its loans, HSBC announced a US$17.2 billion loss;
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Bank of America: Charlotte-based Bank of America reported a 77% drop in profits in the first three months of 2008, hit by trading losses and a US$6bn write-down to cover bad loans. So far, its sub-prime losses total US$14.9 billion.
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Morgan Stanley: Last December, Morgan Stanley announced higher than expected losses from its mortgage-related investments, writing off US$9.4 billion and selling a 9.9% stake in the company to China’s CIC. Losses to date total US$12.6 billion.
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Royal Bank of Scotland: Its exposure and subsequent credit losses come close to US$12 billion.
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JP Morgan: After cutting the value of its mortgage-related investments by US$1.3 billion, the US bank posts a record credit loss of US$9.7 billion.
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Washington Mutual: The US mortgage lender has been hit hard by rising defaults on its mortgage loan book, losing US$8.3 billion.
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Deutsche Bank: Wrote down US$4.2 billion in the first quarter of 2008, on top of the US$3.6 billion writedown which it announced in 2007.

Data source: Bloomberg.

© 2008 financialalert Limited.