Monday 3 March 2008

Bank write-offs soar

(click on the image for a larger version)

Reckless lending leads to higher default rates. It is a simple enough principle, but the banks are having to learn it the hard way.

UK households are overloaded with debt. So it should not come as much of a surprise that more and more households are refusing to pay up. Credit cards and unsecured debts are being written off in ever larger amounts.

However, what do these huge write-offs do for banking sector profitability? Nothing good, that is for sure.

Data source:

Bank of England Financial Stability Report

2 comments:

Unknown said...

HSBC still makin profits after writing huge amounts...
it seems they dont bother that much

Anonymous said...

The fat lady is still going through her warm-ups backstage

Nick