Bank of America in $5bn writedown

Bank becomes latest to suffer fallout from the sub-prime securities fallout

Written by Alex Hawkes

The Bank of America has announced $5bn (£2.5bn) in writedowns resulting from sub-prime related securities.

The massive writedowns are the latest in a series of huge writedowns relating to the sub-prime mortgage collapse.

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The bank said it planned to reduce its use of structured products.

It revealed trading account losses of $5.44bn which it says was driven by large scale cutting down of collateralised debt obligations - groups of loans packed into securities and repackaged for sale to investors - that it holds on its balance sheet.

Wachovia, the fourth largest U.S. bank, also reported a $1.7bn writedown yesterday, also as a result of the sub-prime problems

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