You haven't seen anything yet. Deutsche Bank analysts believe that losses from the falling value of subprime mortgage assets could soar as high as $300 billion to $400 billion worldwide, according to Bloomberg today. Mike Mayo, a New York based analyst, believes Wall Street's largest banks will be forced to write down as much as $130 billion because of subprime related debt. About $1.2 trillion of the $10 trillion of outstanding U.S. home loans are subprime, according to Mayo.

Deutsche Bank expects 30% to 40% of subprime debt to default, Bloomberg reports. Mayo thinks that losses on subprime loans to people with poor credit histories may be as much as half the total lent. He thinks banks and brokers will have to write off $60 billion to $75 billion this year. His estimate is based on known charges of $43 billion and an expected $25 billion not yet announced. Deutsche Bank writedowns are expected to be about $3.15 billion this quarter. He expects writedowns from HSBC Holdings Plc (NYSE: HBC), UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) Bank of Scotland, and Barclays (NYSE: BCS) to be around $5 billion each.

Deutsche Bank plans to hold a conference call on Nov. 15, so we'll have to wait until that time for more details.

Lita Epstein has written more than 20 books including the "Complete Idiot's Guide to the Federal Reserve" and "The 250 Questions You Should Ask to Avoid Foreclosure.

Deutsche Bank predicts subprime losses at $300-400 billion worldwide originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 12 Nov 2007 11:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A lot of companies seem interested in ABN Amro (NYSE: ABN), or, at least, some of its pieces. Barclays (NYSE: BCS) made the first bid for ABN, and then Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) made plans to buy the LaSalle Bank division in the US.

Royal Bank of Scotland put together a group of financial institutions which upped the bid to €71.4 billion. Fortis and Santander, the other major banks in their group, would each have taken pieces of ABN.

Now, Barclays is thinking of improving its offer by upping the cash portion of the deal. According to the FT: "The introduction of cash would appeal to the hedge funds that hold a big proportion of ABN Amro's shares."

The battle between the banks to own ABN raises a question about whether bidding too high could hurt Barclays down the road. ABN's shares are up 30% since the bidding began. If the Barclays bid is reasonable, investors would have to assume that the market was undervaluing ABN by a very significant margin.

If the value of ABN was pegged correctly before the offers began, Barclays could be walking into a huge problem.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

Will Barclays up its offer for ABN Amro? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 13 Jun 2007 08:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.