The £60BN Banking Black Hole

The shareholder group PIRC has done a calculation that warns of a potential black hole in the accounts of British banks, relating to bad debts the banks may have to write off in coming years but have yet to subtract from profits, together with other items such as deferred bonuses not booked.

Amongst those with potential black holes are HSBC with £10.4BN of hidden losses, the Royal Bank of Scotland with £9.4BN and Barclays with £7.3BN.

PIRC applied old-style UK GAAP accounting rules, which applied for 100 years until 2005, to the figures released in the 2012 banks’ accounts.

Basel rules require banks to declare half the expected losses over a year. However, bad loans and expected losses do not appear in the banks’ accounts under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

The Telegraph reports that the Bank of England has suggested the total could amount to £60BN.

This needless to say means that those politicians who hope that banks will increase lending are pissing in the wind, as banks are scrambling to build up their balance sheets in preparation for the next self inflicted financial disaster (such as PPI mis-selling).

Greece's Euro30BN Blackhole

In February I noted that the Troika had have discovered that Greece needed an extra Euro15BN on top of the Euro130BN second bailout that it had yet to receive. In August I noted that the Troika's assessment was that there is a Euro14BN hole in Greece's finances for 2013/14.

A grand total of around Euro29BN in blackholes!

Now Süddeutsche reports that according to senior EU officials, Greece will require an additional two years and additional funding of Euro30BN in order to meet the conditions of its second bailout package. It is not clear as to whether this blackhole is the combination of the two blackholes I wrote about in February and August, or a new blackhole over and above those already highlighted.

Either way it is now unclear if/when Greece will receive its next tranche from the package. Seemingly any decision is being delayed until after the results of the US Presidential election, lest a financially destabilising event propels Romney into office.