Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Royal bank of Scotland and Charter One - a first follow up

Short post: RBS has taken very few charges on its HELOC buiness. I have pointed out that - at least for some houses the price has fallen to near-zero - and the HELOCs are worthless.

This is true for about half of Detroit (an area laden with Charter One branch originated HELOCs).

I will leave you one factoid from todays Wall Street Journal:


For the first four months of this year, home sales in Detroit, excluding suburbs, totaled 3,360, up 48% from a year earlier, according to the Michigan Association of Realtors. The average price dropped 56% to just $20,514. That average is so low because many of the sales involve decrepit homes in neighborhoods with few jobs.

Does anyone believe - even remotely - that Fred Goodwin or Larry Fish have an iota of credibility? Advice to the board: terminate them for cause. Then resign yourself.
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2 comments:

Peter Phan said...

Fancy finding you here after all these years. You still write pretty well.

May 28, 2008 at 4:36 PM
John Hempton said...

Peter - give me an email - through the address in the "about me" section.

J

May 28, 2008 at 5:31 PM

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