banks warned

LOL Let me guess hmmmmmmm ANZ cheerfully announce that once agin it has no further exposure.......until two weeks latter. Then it sacks to tea lady for not advising the board to certain exposures. NAB 'ditto'.

The prudential regulator has warned the big banks to scrutinise their overall loan exposure to financial companies and their satellite funds as turmoil continues on global markets.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is concerned the banks may be treating loans to companies such as Macquarie Group, Babcock & Brown and Challenger Financial and their listed funds as separate exposures, as this could allow the banks to avoid reporting them to the regulator, The Australian Financial Review reports.

Prudential standards dictate that lenders must advise APRA of exposures that exceed 10 per cent of their lending books. Similarly, banks are not allowed to lend more than 25 per cent of their loan book to a single entity without APRA's permission.

At issue are the equity stakes held by the parent company in satellite vehicles, on the grounds that any fall in the share prices of those vehicles may have an impact on the parent's financial position, the Review says.