US banks have $176bn in exposure to troubled Europe, BarCap says

[Joanne98]

US banks’ exposure to Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain represents approximately 5 per cent of their total foreign exposure, analysts at Barclays Capital said in a note on Tuesday.

In absolute terms, that clocks in about about $176bn. Emphasis FT Alphaville’s:

Based on FFIEC data, total exposure to these four countries is $176bn, split as follows: $82bn to Ireland, $68bn to Spain, $18bn to Greece, and $9bn to Portugal. Most of this exposure, which includes low-risk collateralized transactions such as repurchase agreements, is concentrated at the ten largest US banks.

While these amounts may seem large, we note that combined they are just 5% of the total cross-border exposure of the 73 US banks included in the FFIEC report. Greece and Portugal are less than 1% of the total cross-border exposure.

…While exposure information includes many types of risk such as loans, debt, and equity, most of it is likely low risk transactions such as foreign exchange and repurchase agreements, in our opinion.

continued>>>
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2010/02/10/145586/us-banks-have-176bn-in-exposure-to-troubled-europe-barcap-says/

[Turbineguy]

1. $176 Billion

do we multiply that by 30 to account for leverage?