Standard Chartered to take $7.15 billion SIV on balance sheet. Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Citigroup, Bank of America, Washington Mutual, D.R. Horton and Ryland Group.

Jan.31, 2008 in Market Outlook

Standard Chartered to fund $7.15 billion SIV

By Simon Kennedy, MarketWatch

Last Update: 6:43 AM ET Jan 31, 2008

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Standard Chartered’s become the latest in a string of
banks to rescue struggling structured investment vehicles, saying Thursday that
it will take on its balance sheet $7.15 billion of assets from the Whistlejacket
Capital fund.

The U.K.-listed bank, which operates mainly in Asia, will provide funding by
buying commercial paper issued by the fund.

Standard Chartered (UK:STAN) added that 2007 earnings will be reduced by some
$116 million due to two separate deals to swap investments in the fund for a
share of its assets. However, the move isn’t expected to have a significant
impact on earnings or capital resources in 2008, the company said.

Shares of Standard Chartered fell 4% as the broader banking sector also lost
ground on continuing worries over the bond-insurance market. Also see Europe
Markets.
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Structured investment vehicles, or SIVs, borrow money by issuing short-term
commercial paper while investing in longer-term debt. But many have been
struggling to find buyers for their paper — which must be renewed every couple
of months — since the credit crisis took hold last summer.

In December, Citigroup Inc. (C) moved $49 billion of assets from several funds on
its balance sheet. That move came shortly after HSBC (UK:HSBA)(HBC) promised to
provide up to $35 billion in funding to two structured investment vehicles.

Citigroup, along with Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
(JPM) outlined plans last fall for a $100 billion “superfund” to buy up SIV
assets, but the plan was later shelved as banks acted on their own to prop up the
SIVs they managed.

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Citigroup, Bank of America, Washington Mutual,
D.R. Horton and Ryland Group.

CHICAGO, Jan 31, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Zacks.com announces the list of stocks
featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts
discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets.
Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Citigroup (C), Bank of America
(BAC), Washington Mutual (WM), D.R. Horton (DHI) and Ryland Group (RYL).

See the latest posts to the Analyst Blog here:
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