18-01-2008
Merrill Lynch confirms impact of credit crisis
News by Adfero for Simply Business - independent providers of business insurance, business finance, landlord insurance, buy-to-let mortgages & commercial mortgages.
Banking firm Merrill Lynch has confirmed it has been affected by the ongoing credit crunch, it has emerged.
As a consequence of the poor performance during the final quarter of 2007, the bank has confirmed a loss totalling $14.1 billion (£7.19), resulting in an annual pre-tax loss of $12.8 billion for 2007.
Merrill Lynch offers a number of services, including investment banking, asset and wealth management.
"While the firm's earnings performance for the year is clearly unacceptable, over the last few weeks we have substantially strengthened the firm's liquidity and balance sheet," said John Thain, chairman and chief executive of Merrill Lynch.
Although the losses were partially made up from a credit valuation adjustment totalling $2.6 billion, the greatest proportion came from a sub prime-related "write-down" of $11.5 billion.
In 2006, the firm had made a profit of $9.8 billion, before tax.
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