Mortgage lenders are still hiding losses from shareholders and others due to subprime writedowns. Instead of being completely transparent about their losses, some securities firms and banks have been hiding them using creative financing rules. Bloomberg reports on some of the banks trying to hide their losses due to subprime writedowns:
Citigroup Inc. subtracted $2 billion from equity for the declining value of home-loan bonds in its quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 2 without mentioning the deduction in the earnings statement or conference call with investors that followed. ING Groep NV placed 3.6 billion euros ($5.6 billion) of negative valuations in its capital account, while disclosing only an 80 million-euro depletion to income.
The two companies named above aren't the only mortgage lenders to do this. Further proof that the housing market troubles are not over yet -- and that they will continue to have a measure of economic reach.
image credit: sxc.hu
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