More nasty surprises loom for banks

With another $1.5trn of write-downs in the pipeline, we haven't heard the last of banks' losses.

Sovereign debt may be the new worry, but we haven't heard the last of banks' losses. The IMF recently estimated that there are another $1.5trn of write-downs in the pipeline. Austria's nationalisation of Hypo Bank last week suggests problems have been swept under the carpet, due partly to relaxed accounting rules, says Divyang Shah of IFR Markets.

In America, another wave of mortgage resets, whereby the low initial interest rates on certain mortgages jump after a few years, is due in 2010 and 2011. The $750bn of resets the same sumas in 2007 and 2008 combined are concentrated in self-certified and Alt-A (one step above subprime) mortgages. Get set for "the sequel" to the subprime drama, says Lombard Odier Darier Hensch.

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