Banks: Is It Time to Play?

Image: Getty Images @ Forbes

For investors hoping to scoop up European banking assets on the cheap, here's some info gathered from Forbes, who mysteriously presented the same info in a difficult to compare set of pictures. Pretty but not useful. Nonetheless, their article does highlight some important cautions: the report where they gathered the info from only considered sovereign exposures, and neither the corporate debt exposure or derivative positions, nor the knock-on effects of a sovereign default. Value play or value trap, it's hard to decide at this present moment. Nonetheless, here's a better table.

American banking assets are also trading cheaply these days, for its own sets of reasons - changing regulatory rules which would impact the big boys, mortgage issues still bubbling, and economy still reluctant to show signs of a sustained recovery. Do investigate these if you wish to make a play on banking, it might work out to be a better deal.

Rank	Bank	Total Assets ($B)	PIIGS Sovereign Debt ($B)	%debt to assets
1	BNP Paribas	2668	43.1	1.62
2	Deutsche Bank	2545	16.2	0.64
3	HSBC	2468	6.7	0.27
4	Barclays	2328	29.2	1.25
5	RBS	2266	3.5	0.15
6	Credit Agricole	2131	19.1	0.9
7	Banco Santander	1610	69.6	4.32
8	Lloyds	1546	0.1	0.01
9	Societe General	1512	9.7	0.64
10	Unicredit	1232	54.3	4.41
	Sources: Bloomberg; Goldman Sachs' Report "Europe: Banks, July 13"; Worldscope via Factset Research Systems.