$20bn In Writedowns, 20,000 In Job Losses

Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag reported over the weekend that Credit Suisse is likely to write down some $4.99bn in assets when its posts its first-quarter earnings later this month. The firm, which has already taken $5.8bn in writedowns since the credit crisis began in the summer, recently said that it would probably post a loss in the first-quarter. Many expect that loss to be in the region of $2bn.

Both Citigroup and Merrill Lynch are due to post their first-quarter earnings this week, with The Sunday Times, citing unnamed sources, saying that Citi will writedown around $10bn and post a loss of around $3bn, while Merrill may take $5bn in writedowns and post a $2.7bn loss.

In the meantime, Bloomberg reports that UK think-tank The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) now estimates that the credit crisis will account for almost 20,000 London-based jobs in 2008 / 2009, as total numbers drop to 342,000 at the end of this year, and to 334,000 at the end of next. The CEBR says that the current job misery is worse than even that seen during the dot-com crash, which accounted for some 15,000 City jobs.

The news agency also reports that Deutsche Bank is thought to hold around $55bn in unsold LBO loans, around a quarter of the outstanding total. According to research published by BNP Paribas, Deutsche's total is some $12bn more than Citi's exposure, which comes in at $43bn. And The Wall Street Journal now reports that Deutsche is in negotiations to sell around $20bn of this debt to a collection of investors, including private-equity firms.

Lehman CFO Erin Callan has described March as 'a very, very tough month'. Speaking on Bloomberg TV, she said that 'I don't see what the real catalyst for change would be over the next several months. We've got to look out to 2009 for where we're going (to see a) change'.

Finally, Sberbank, Russia's biggest bank, has come out and said that it is not in negotiations to acquire Dresdner Kleinwort, despite rumours last week that the German investment banking unit was on its wish list.