Banche -5%

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Il settore bancario è quello che ha affondato gli indici USA ieri e la valanga è iniziata con un articolo sulla contabilità di Tyco e i rumor di un altro articolo che possa uscire su Cendant che NON sono dei bancari e hanno solo creato "l'atmosfera" negativa per tutto quello che è contabilità ma la valanga è accellerata quando una oscura banca regionale, PNC Financial Services Group ha ricevuto un ordine dalla FED di non usare dei "veicoli speciali" per spostare alcuni prestiti fuori bilancio nonostante la transazione fosse stata approvata da altre autorità. La FED ha voluto fare vedere che è ora vigilante e questo intervento ridotto da 576 a 412 milioni l'utile di questa banca regionale che ha perso un -10% La cosa straordinaria è che un mese fa questo sarebbe passato inosservato e ieri ha fatto crollare del 5% le mega banche come Bank of America o Bank of New York Al momento il mercato è diventato molto reattivo e amplifica e anticipa i problemi e di colpo tutti ora preferiscono vendere se solo c'è un sospetto. ----------------------------------------- Bank-company stocks overall fell about 5% amid concerns regulators are taking a tough stance on whether banks have used an accounting maneuver to make their earnings look better than they really are. The selloff was triggered when PNC Financial Services Group said Tuesday that the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission had opened inquiries into how it accounted for three companies it set up with a large insurance concern that people familiar with the matter identified as American International Group. During the course of last year, PNC, a large Pittsburgh-based regional bank, dumped into the three companies, called special-purpose vehicles, about $550 million of loans it wanted to remove from its balance sheet and liquidate, as well as venture-capital investments, and some other securities. Although PNC's accounting of those vehicles had been approved by its independent auditor, Big Five accounting firm Ernst & Young, the bank said the Fed recently had given it different guidance that would cause the large Pittsburgh-based bank to lower its 2001 net income. Earlier this month, the company said it earned $567 million, or $1.91 a share, in 2001. The bank said Tuesday that last year's earnings would now be $412 million, or $1.38 a share. "They paid a price for that," said Harold Schroeder, a money manager at Carlson Research & Analytics Inc. in New York. "It's more an embarrassment than anything else. Nobody likes to have their accounting second-guessed." The bank said it is cooperating with the Fed and SEC inquiries. A spokesman for Ernst & Young declined to comment. PNC rarely causes ripples in the banking world. But Tuesday's news sent jitters through the stock market that the banking sector would now be in line for the kind of intense financial and accounting scrutiny that has been focused on Enron in recent months as it sank into its December bankruptcy-court reorganization. Indeed, people familiar with the transactions say the PNC inquiry is part of a broader look by bank and securities regulators into whether other banks were using structures similar to those of PNC to take bad loans off the balance sheet. The Fed's review of PNC's issues began a few months ago, around the time Enron was beginning to crumble, largely because Enron hid troubled businesses off the balance sheet, say people familiar with the transactions. In an unusual move, the Fed referred its PNC review to the SEC's enforcement division, an indication of how seriously the banking regulator is treating accounting issues. As part of the regulators' inquiry, AIG, which was an investor in the PNC transactions and collected management fees on the deals, and Ernst & Young could come under SEC scrutiny themselves. The SEC and Fed declined to comment. "The market is having a panic attack about the whole integrity of the financial accounting industry, and PNC provoked it, because out of left field it said it would have to restate earnings," said Merrill Lynch analyst Judah Kraushaar. Added Michael Mayo, analyst at Prudential Securities, "All banks will be under a cloud until the regulators have more fully reviewed their year-end financials." The news also left analysts scrambling to figure out -- so far with little success -- which other banks may be vulnerable to similar accounting-related questions because of how they have sought to dispose of loans they no longer want.