These guys really were exposed
What if the real problem in the financial meltdown was simply a problem of exposure? I was kind of curious to see how the big banks had allocated their loan assets over the past few years, so I did a quickie comparison based on FDIC and OTS data. The results were shocking to me, even if someone savvier wouldn’t bat an eye.
Wells Fargo’s latest call report shows that they are carrying around $55 billion in closed end single family residential loans secured by a first position lien. That’s about 15.3% of their loan portfolio. By comparison, March 2008′s call report for Bank of America revealed that they were carrying about $203 billion of the same loans, or 30% of their portfolio. Washington Mutual was carrying a whopping 54% of its portfolio in those loans, or $133 billion. Talk about exposure.
No wonder Washington Mutual was willing to write my home loan!
Share on Facebook