Where does it hurt the most? US banks seem to have taken the brunt of the pain from subprime so far. Since the start of September, US bank stocks have performed more than twice as badly as European peers. They also seem to have been braver about taking the pain. Of the subprime exposure of about $400bn announced to date globally, US banks account for about $222bn, while European banks have stated exposure of about $164bn, according to estimates by Goldman Sachs. But US banks have marked down subprime collateralised debt obligation exposure by 28 per cent, compared with just 13 per cent for European banks. There could be good reasons for this discrepancy. But based on the ABX index, the US markdowns appear to tally more closely with the 29 per cent cumulative loss incurred by outstanding US subprime, according to Goldman. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/d513c3b4-9b...c.html&_i_referer=http://ftalphaville.ft.com/