All GLG News Analyses Filed Under: Commercial & Retail Banking

The announcement  by  UBS  of  a  $10 bn  writedown  and  financing  from  Singapore  and  the  Middle  East  coming  so  soon  after  Citigroup  took  financing  from  Dubai  points ...

This provision looks conservative, and not in a good way. If the realists are even close to right, there is much more to come.

1. In a rising market how much is backed by fundamentals and how much is irrational exuberance.

That repository of the world’s financial wisdom has spoken.  The stock market is perhaps the only truly reliable forward looking indicator and it tells us that banks will lose money, lots of money, over the next six months (through q1 08).  The markets already value the expected impairment...

Temasek, the investment arm of Singapore government sold shares in Bank of China and China Construction Bank are very coincidence with the request from the three China's major banks to buy its shares in Standard & Chartered Bank.

Executives from Bank of America, Capital One and Discover appeared before the Senate Committee on 12.4.07, to explain their credit card practices. Credit card executives defended the practices as "legal," however; critics denounce the practices and want Congress to regulate the credit card behemoths....

Can banks report profits while still being insolvent? This question may come into play as rolling writedowns play out over the next five years or so. However, banks enjoy special accounting rules that are under continuous review by the standard-setting bodies in the US and EU, and the regulatory authorities...

Not all banks are exposed to sub-prime mortgages, CDO's, SIV's, MBS's and the like yet all banks are trading at unrealistically low levels.  This is a golden opportunity for investors who know how and where to analyze bank financials.

The 18 month moratorium on approvals of commercial firms acquiring industrial banks will not be extended past January.  The FDIC may not have the legal ability to block the acquisition of banks by Wal-Mart and Blackstone (Alliance).  This could open the flood gates for other deals as well....

This is really only the first round in Citi's restructuring.