ING and SG avoid worst of subprime crisis

ING Bank and Société Générale have avoided the full effects of the subprime crisis that has led to multi-billion-dollar writedowns for other US and European banks.

ING said its €3.1 billion portfolio of residential mortgage-backed securities and leveraged loans based on subprime mortgages had suffered "no material impairments or revaluations", and added that the bank had seen only "a negligible increase in funding costs" in the quarter to September 30 this year. Chairman Michel Tilmant credited the bank's risk management with protecting it from the crisis' effects.

Société Générale, meanwhile, reported a writedown of €230 million in its fixed income, currencies and commodities business due to exposure through collateralised debt obligations based on US residential mortgages, worse than its September estimates of €100 million-200 million. The estimate was based on a total worst-case scenario loss of $200 billion for the entire US residential mortgage sector, the bank said - this in turn assumes a default rate of 30% and a loss given default of 49%.

See also: Change at top as Citi sees writedowns
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UBS warns of continuing subprime risk