Lehman credit fallout contained
Australian banks yesterday provided some detail on their loans and credit exposures to Lehman Brothers, the Wall Street investment bank that filed for bankruptcy on Monday.Commonwealth Bank said its exposure was "less than A$150 million".ANZ said it had exposures of US$120 million, including US$28 million to the holding company and US$92 million to subsidiaries.NAB said its exposure was "less than A$100 million including any exposure in conduits" while Westpac's was less than A$10 million.Meanwhile the value of the equities of Australian financials took a beating for a second day yesterday as US dollar, though not Australian dollar, interbank funding continued to be priced at twice the notional cash rate and the solvency of American International Group remained under question.Macquarie Group shed another 6.7 per cent or $2.66 yesterday to close at $36.80, as the Wall Street investment bank failure of Lehman Brothers slammed the values of like business models around the world.Babcock & Brown lost another third in value, falling 53 cents to $1.05, but was well up on intra day lows of just 79 cents.The market is clearly concerned the junior investment bank will struggle to maintain itself as a going concern, with the market capitalisation now around $360 million. Twelve-month highs are over $31.The Australian major banks were hit hard for a second day in a row, with National backing up the five per cent fall on Monday with a four per cent fall yesterday to $21.90, and Australian and New Zealand shedding three per cent to $16.36.Commonwealth was relatively unscathed, dropping 28 cents to $41.70, with St George down 24 cents to $30.10. Westpac bucked the trend, up 11 cents to $23.26.AMP continued its sharp decline, falling 4.4 per cent to $6.53, after falling eight per cent on Monday. Equally unloved Suncorp was down another 35 cents or 3.7 per cent to $9.15.The All Ordinaries was down 1.5 per cent for the day to 4,800, with the financial index off 1.8 per cent.