In response to
"Crap, pmb lir; -- (link)"
by
Loyola
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That's a different question that I understood was being asked.
Posted by
pmb (aka pmb)
Aug 10 '09, 12:00
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The question of how much was being paid to buy out the bad debts is a reasonable question (though again I think it's extremely difficult to know what would have been a fair price since the market collapsed. There should be information available on this though. I would be shocked if they were buying it 100 cents on the dollar though. Most likely it was purchased at whatever it was written down to (which would be a significant discount off face amount). The question I understood was being asked was what did the banks do with the funds they received. I agree they have not been lending a lot of it out, but the truth is that over the first half of the year that was the prudent decision. Earnings statements of borrowers were falling off a cliff and asset valuations were tanking so fast it was difficult to adequately determine what could be loaned. We don't want them to make the same stupid decisions they made before and give the money out to people who can't pay them back. As things are stabilizing banks are starting to lend again. It's still pretty cautious and a lot remains focused on working out troubled credits. But the banks are doing what banks do. I don't know what kind of further accounting of how the funds are used is really that helpful.
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