End in Sight to Subprime Mortgage Writedowns--S&P

Reuters (03/14/08); Aubin, Dena
A March 13 announcement by Standard & Poor's (S&P) that the mortgage crisis is half over bolstered the stock markets. However, the ratings firm revised its estimate of total subprime mortgage write-downs to $285 billion from $265 billion. While S&P believes subprime write-downs are nearing an end, it acknowledged the possibility of additional write-downs in other sectors. According to S&P credit analyst Scott Bugie, "The positive news is that, in our opinion, the global financial sector appears to have already disclosed the majority of valuation write-downs of subprime asset-backed securities."