Nov. 9 -- Wachovia Corp., the fourth-largest U.S. bank, set aside as much as $600 million for loan losses in the fourth quarter and said the value of some debt securities fell by about $1.1 billion before tax in October.
Wachovia held $676 million of asset-backed collateralized debt obligations as of Oct. 31, down from $1.8 billion at the end of September, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission dated yesterday. The $2.1 billion value of the company's subprime residential mortgage-backed securities was unchanged.
``Wachovia now expects to record a loan loss provision in the fourth quarter of 2007 by an amount estimated to be between $500 million and $600 million in excess of charge-offs for the quarter,'' Wachovia said. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company cited ``anticipated loan growth and the impact of continuing credit deterioration in our loan portfolio.''
Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest U.S. securities firm, joined Merrill Lynch & Co. and Citigroup Inc. this week in booking losses on subprime mortgage-related assets and said the outlook for credit markets is bleaker than in September. The world's biggest banks have written down more than $40 billion after late payments on U.S. home-loans rose to a five-year high and foreclosures set a record.
Wachovia reported its first earnings decline in six years on Oct. 19 and missed analysts' estimates after a record $1.3 billion of writedowns for bad loans and mortgage-backed securities. Net income fell 10 percent to $1.69 billion.
Since then, ``certain financial markets experienced further deterioration,'' particularly for subprime RMBS and asset-backed CDOs, the company said in its filing. ``Of the remaining asset classes where we recorded market disruption-related losses in the third quarter of 2007, the aggregate net market value changes in October in these investments have not been significant.''
No comments:
Post a Comment