Useful update : Commercial real estate watch

Here’s a useful update on the CRE front, from the American Bankers Association, and courtesy of Barry Ritholtz at the Big Picture.

It’s a list of 150 US bank holding companies, ranked by their commercial real estate loans.

We’ve presented the top 10 below, but click through for the full CRE experience.



What’s quite amazing about the full list is that it looks like only 24 of the 150 banks on it — a meagre 16 per cent — have actually reduced their CRE exposure over the past year or so. If nothing’s changed since March, and the CRE sector does turn out to be a ticking timebomb, you can expect the vast majority of banks on this list to be in more than a little bit of difficulty.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/08/bank-holding-companies-ranked-by-commercial-real-estate-loans/

http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/08/25/68486/commercial-real-estate-watch/

http://www.americanbanker.com/rankings/bank_holding_companies_ranked_by_cre_loans-1001070-1.html

 

Why reduce their exposure when they can keep them on the books for full value?

 

why would they want full value in their books?