U.S. Banks Face Contagion Risk From European Debt

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) U.S. banks face a “serious risk” that their creditworthiness will deteriorate if Europe’s debt crisis deepens and spreads beyond the five most-troubled nations, Fitch Ratings said.

“Unless the euro zone debt crisis is resolved in a timely and orderly manner, the broad credit outlook for the U.S. banking industry could worsen,” the New York-based rating company said yesterday in a statement. Even as U.S. banks have “manageable” exposure to stressed European markets, “further contagion poses a serious risk,” Fitch said, without explaining what it meant by contagion.

The “exposures” of U.S. lenders to major European banks and the stressed nations of Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, known as the GIIPS, are smaller than those to some of the continent’s larger countries, Fitch said.

The six biggest U.S. banks -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Citigroup Inc. (C), Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley (MS) -- had $50 billion in risk tied to the GIIPS on Sept. 30, Fitch said. So-called cross-border outstandings to France for all except Wells Fargo were $188 billion, including $114 billion to French banks. Risk to Britain and its banks was $225 billion and $51 billion, respectively. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-16/banks-in-u-s-facing-serious-risk-on-contagion-from-europe-fitch-says.html

[Uben]

1. Not my bank......

..cuz I bank with a credit union! Big banks in America are just casinos where they do the gambling and you do the losing!

[sarcasmo]

2. Casino gambling with deposited money and then charging a fee to get it back.

[SpiralHawk]

3. "All your credit are belong to us." - 1% (R)

[Prometheus Bound]

4. Not just contagion risk. They face Armageddon.

[xchrom]

5. Read 'Bail Out 2.0'. Nt

[CoffeeCat]

6. After Greece and Italy were cleared of obstacles...

...such as leaders who wanted things like--DEMOCRACY AND AN END TO CORPORATE/BANK
ABUSES AND POWER--they're now making their fear-based, hair-on-fire case for
a major bailout.

The banks do business like sociopathic thugs and profit from it--beyond their wildest dreams.

And now--they are about to become the recipients of more FREE cash--just for being assholes.

Let's watch now while the PR campaign of fear and terror heats up!