The New York Times reports that another European bank hedge fund has been wiped out due to its investment in subprime mortgage backed securities (SMBS). Netherlands' NIBC Holdings reported that it lost at least $188 million on investments in the American mortgage market for subprime loans. It joins Paris' BNP and Düsseldorf, IKB Deutsche Industriebank, and some Australian hedge funds and banks.
With the globalization of financial markets, it's clear that nobody knows which banks, hedge funds, insurance companies, and pension funds own those SMBSs. Nor do they know how much money banks have lent these institutional investors. But if the banks decide they want their money back, and the collateral is worthless, then the institutional investors will either need to sell more liquid holdings -- e.g., stocks -- or they will file for bankruptcy.
In a rather lame move, the Wall Street Journal reports that in an effort to see if they're hiding losses, the SEC is examining the books of U.S. investment banks to see if they're marking down the value of their own subprime portfolios in the same way as they are marking down those of their clients. But what's really needed, as I suggested above, is a view of the global damage -- not just the situation in the U.S.
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