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I have decided to keep pumping as much of my preliminary research as possible to the blog for free. Please read and accept the disclaimer below. In addition to the disclaimer, I want to add that this...
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I know who's holding the $119 billion dollar bag!

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Written by Reggie Middleton   
Sunday, 24 February 2008

This is post is primarily to document my assertions of self insurance by the banks in their alleged efforts to prop up the monoline (or should I say multilines?). Below you will find a chart with links that provide, in extreme detail, the insured holdings of a handful of banks and one homebuilder with a large mortgage operation (I do mean extreme detail, including asset name, CUSIP #, ratings by all major agencies, vintage, etc.). Let me add that I don't know how much of this is actually bank inventory versus what was sold off, but my guess is that the banks got stuck with the vast majority of everything from the last year or so. In addition, most of the underwriting banks can get stuck with the stuff that was found to violate the agreed upon underwriting guidelines (which is potentially a lot) for a certain period, even if it was sold off. This is something that can sink the smaller equity base banks such as First Franklin.

This is $120 billion dollars right here, and it is nowhere near comprehensive. These are RMBS, CMBS, and a smattering of consumer finance ABS insured by MBIA and Ambac. I know everybody thinks that we may be coming to the end of the writedowns from real estate related devaulations, but if that is what everybody thinks then everybody is wrong. This bubble took at least 6 years to build, it is not going to dissipate in 1 year. We are about 50% through the subprime crisis, but since this problem was never a subprime issue to begin with, we have lot more to go. There are all of the other classes of mortgages, the commercial real estate market, which I went over in detail , there is the consumer finance markets (recession, anyone?), then the big grand daddy of them all, the leveraged loan, junk bond CDO and CDS market - crashing at a financial institution near you. I am 50% through a forensic analysis that will expose the junk bond CDOs held by monolines that will probably knock your socks off. Alas, I digress...

This credit problem and real asset bubble is a result of combining very cheap money with the lax, "other people's money", moral  hazard to be had whenyou don't need to be responsible for your own underwriting - otherwise known as the natural consequence of asset securitization. Why fret over due diligence when we're just going to sell the stuff off. The following are a sampling of whose holding the bag...

 

 image004.gif

The Partial Cost of Monoline ABS Failure    
  Par  Equity   Exposure Ratio   
Bear Stearns $15,673,088,703 $11,793,000,000 132.90%  icon BSC ABS inventory
Morgan Stanley $22,956,101,796 $31,269,000,000 73.41%  icon MS ABS Inventory
Lehman Brothers $3,151,328,632 $22,490,000,000 14.01%  icon LEH ABS Inventory
Citigroup $8,100,028,623 $127,113,000,000 6.37%  icon C ABS Inventory
Countrywide $12,639,385,566 $15,252,230,000 82.87%  icon CFC ABS Inventory
Wells Fargo $4,700,835,231 $47,738,000,000 9.85%  icon Wells Fargo ABS Inventory
Goldman Sachs $18,673,869,328 $42,800,000,000 43.63%  icon GS ABS Inventory
WaMu $7,658,982,498 $23,941,000,000 31.99%  icon WaMu ABS Inventory
Merrill Lynch $10,224,387,634 $38,626,000,000 26.47%  icon ML ABS Inventory
Centex $511,740,636 $3,197,130,000 16.01%  icon CTX ABS Inventory
Wachovia $5,328,228,928 $76,872,000,000 6.93%  icon Wachovia ABS Inventory
Totals $118,950,151,688 $477,918,010,000 24.89%  

First Frankin appears to have significantly more exposure than equity (a lot more, so much so that it actually through my Excel charts out of whack): icon First Franklin Monoline ABS Inventory

This chart is using gross equity as reported, not tangible equity or foresnically scrubbed equity which is bound to be a lower number. For examples of how we use forensic analysis to reconstruct reported numbers and financial statements, see the Lennar and General Growth Properties (with conference call update ) analyses.  

I am short Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns, for the very same reasons that they are numbers one and two on this list (excluding Countrywide, whose short position was covered a while back, although I still have a bear position on WaMu). To see my take on these two banks, read my overview on the industry: Banks, Brokers, & Bullsh1+ part and Banks, Brokers, & Bullsh1+ part 2 then read or download the full analyses: "The Riskiest Bank on the Street" and "Is this the Breaking of the Bear?".

image002.gif

 

 

 



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Comments (17)Add Comment
676
Question
written by Robert Cote, February 25, 2008
I think I understand "Par" as being the current book value of the various instruments insured by Ambac. What I don't understand is "Equity" in this context. Is it something like free cash flow for the various insureds? Thanks for all you do, I just hope this isn't oe of those stupid questions.
62
Ther are no stupid questions...
written by Reggie Middleton, February 25, 2008
I know these banks and insurers wish someone would have asked a stupid question a few years ago, like "What happens when subprime loans written in a bubble start acting like subprime loans written in a bubble?"

Par is the amount insured. Equity is the equity of the insured company, taken right off of the balance sheet. Realistically, this number should be foresnically scrubbed to remove the BS, at the very least it should include only tangible equity (excluding goodwill, treasury/capital stock, etc.)
800
...
written by Ken Karachi, February 25, 2008
Like most things with me I stumbled across your blog. Congratualtions on a great blog. Continued success to you.

Harleydog
228
Trillion with a T?
written by William Peyton, February 25, 2008
I am looking at the BS pdf right now. This is an astonishing amount of work! I am sure I am no following this correctly, but it looks like you are projecting 2 Trillion in losses just in this portfolio. Is that remotely correct? Also I am looking for the 15B in the table above, but can't find it - which of these securities are insured by MBIA/Ambac?

Seems like if the BS losses are in the T's, then the 15B insured by the monolines is pretty small potatoes.

Thanks for more great work.
514
...
written by Bill Laird, February 25, 2008
Two sayings come to mind:

On the banks/monolines all too cushy relationship:
It's like the blind leading the blind

On shorting these POS stocks:
It's like taking candy from a baby
0
The wrong African-American is running for president
written by Stephen, February 25, 2008
I'm ready to nominate Reggie Middleton!
94
trillion vs. billion
written by Mark Edmunds, February 25, 2008
wpeyton,

Pretty sure the losses are in the billions, not trillions. A two trillion dollar loss would be 15%-20% of GDP.

Nevertheless, I have the same question about the insured securities. Perhaps I was too lazy to look hard, but I was unable to find the exposure to MBIA and Ambac for BSC. Is this indicated somewhere in the files?
676
Remember However
written by Robert Cote, February 25, 2008
This would be a good time to remember that "Exposure" in this analysis is for 100% losses and no insurance recovery. The range of loses could be anything from 20% to 120% after expenses. Not everything is going to be a zero and some small number may actually see insurance payouts. In the other hand there are some nasty second lien sub-prime bundles that will probably cost more than a 100% loss just to process the paperwork and file the court documents, etc. When I look inside some of these lists and see LIBOR 300bp with 2034 maturities I have to ask what somebody was thinking. Okay, I know they were thinking the massive premium would get people to prepay ASAP and thus generate fees and still pull good ROIs but somewhere deep down they had to know it was a game of "hot potato."
62
...
written by Reggie Middleton, February 26, 2008
The exposure numbers are in indicated in the billions, not trillions. If it was trillions it would be time to start buying land on the moon smilies/grin.gif

Rob Dawg is right. I actually started running some losses estimates. The BSC downloads have them. Loss estimates are pretty much guesses, but as time goes on and more defaults, devaluations, and recoveries (or lack thereof) unfold, those guesses become more accurate. The first pdf download is for bear stearns. These exposures are for MBIA and Ambac combined.

As for recoveries, keep in mind that there will be no recoveries for CDO products, because there is nothing to recover. The insurers are guaranteeing tranches of theoretically derived (marked to model) cash flows, not the performance of tangible or truly tradable assets. Thus, if the tranches stop paying out there is nothing to fall back on. The assets that were suppose to generate the cash flows are pledged to the CDO itself, not the individual tranche. This is a nuance that I think many are missing. In addition, if the CDO blows up and defaults, thus is liquidated, I believe (I am not a lawyer and this is really up to how the CDS is written, but I know a couple of lawyers who write these) that payment is accelerated, and not issued over the maturity of the contract. The extended payment period comes into play when principal and/or interest payments have been missed.

Now, we just may reach the trillion dollar mark if you take all of the loses in aggregate. The leveraged loans, junk bonds, consumer finance, the resultant equity devaluations, RMBS, CMBS, direct mortgages, consumer finance - we have a ways to go. The universe of potential losses are much larger than just MBIA and Ambac, who together insure over $1.2 trillion.
62
Disclaimer added
written by Reggie Middleton, February 26, 2008
I added in the blog post the disclaimer that I don't know how much of these securitizations still remain on the books of the banks. My bet is the vast majority of them, but I want to be clear. In addition, those with loans that can be put back to the underwriter for waivering from the agreed upon underwriting guidelines are included as well.
86
BSC et al...
written by Justin B, February 29, 2008
Based on what's happening in the bond market, looks like the next day of reckoning (round of write-downs) may be close at hand.
1022
...
written by Chris Marshall, April 08, 2008
Reggie, I've found this quite informative ( like the new site design also). I have two pressing points which may interest other members.

1) What is the total value of all US assets?
2) What is the total value of all US debt?

In much the same way that a credit card debt can exceed the value of the actual asset purchased, I would be surprised if (2) was smaller than (1).

When I was in a meeting with a large UK commercial bank recently, they openly stated that debt has a higher value than its cash equivalent. I queried this, and they explained that debt carries a higher rate of interest than you receive as interest on a cash deposit, therefore debt is more valuable.

I pointed out that in a downturn " cash is king ", and wondered when this perception of debt being more valuable would change? No response was forthcoming.

Is this view of debt being more valuable than cash widely held, and if so, is this one of the causes of the credit bubble?
67
...
written by Arun Raja, April 08, 2008
Reggie,

The First Franklin PDF seems to come up as an empty file. You might have to upload it again.
94
Investmnet banks' ABS inventories
written by Mark Edmunds, May 01, 2008
Reggie,

Can you share where you got the inventories you posted and what they include? I could be wrong, but based on a review of some of the deal prospectuses as well as MBIA and Ambac's disclosed exposures, it looked like some of the deals are not wrapped by MBIA or Ambac, and some other deals that are wrapped by MBIA or Ambac do not appear on the list.

Do you have any idea (even a guess) whether these ABS exposures are typical of investment banks' ABS inventories. My guess (a very ignorant one) is that they are typical.

The loss estimates look about the same as those used in Pershing Square's model. Did you borrow Pershing Square's tranche loss assumptions?

If the exposures are at all typical, then the loss estimates you derived may be too low. The loss estimates on the listed exposures are more severe than my independent projections. For example, your analysis produces an overall average loss rate around 50% for Morgan Stanley, whereas I come up with closer to 35% or 40%. However, the total exposure of the investment banks is much larger than what your files list. For example, BSC's 10-K shows $46B of mortgages and asset backed securities as of fiscal year-end 2007 (including $17.3B classified as level 3 assets). This is roughly three times as much as the $15.7B in the inventory file.

The $3.2B of Lehman exposure in your inventory file represents only a tiny fraction of Lehman's mortgage and asset backed exposure of $84.6B as of the end of the second quarter (including $23.8B classified as level 3). Page 24 of Lehman's most recent 10-Q shows write-downs on level 3 mortgage and asset-backed securities over the past several quarters (excluding the offsetting impact of hedges). During the past three quarters, Lehman's total write-downs on these assets amounted to roughly 15% of average exposure. If the assets listed in your inventories are at all indicative of Lehman's level 3 exposure, the write-downs should probably be at least twice this amount. If they are representative of Lehman's overall ABS portfolio, then the write-downs are likely to be higher than Lehman's shareholders' equity.
62
...
written by Reggie Middleton, May 01, 2008
The numbers were derived from Ackman's model, hence it is indicative of MBIA and Ambac only. Since there was absolutely no disagreement or protest from Ambac or MBIA regading the inventory, even though both cos. admitted to reviewing it, consider the inventory content to be credible.

Keep in mind that this is to represent only MBIA/Ambac exposure, and not overall MBS/ABS exposure.
94
...
written by Mark Edmunds, May 02, 2008
The lists appear to include ABS tranches that are bundled into CDOs wrapped by the monolines. Is this correct?

Does it also include directly insured RMBS tranches? If direct RMBS was included, I would have expected to have seen some large senior tranches, but I could only find subordinated tranches in the inventories you posted.
62
...
written by Reggie Middleton, May 03, 2008
To be honest, it was my analyst that went through the data with a fine tooth comb. I provided the code to read the data (the model is 122 mb, uncompressed). From what I remember, it was mostly CDOs, ABS and MBS pools. The CUSIP for each security was included for anyone who wanted to do futher research.

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