Goldman Sees Bigger Losses for Big Banks

Goldman Sachs has some bad news for Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, and JPMorgan Chase: An analyst predicts even bigger fourth-quarter writedowns for all three firms than they've already cottoned to, thanks to continued exposure to collateralized debt. The losses will be “significantly larger than investors are anticipating.” How large is that? Try a combined $33.6 billion, the Wall Street Journal reports.  

New CEOs at Citigroup and Merrill will be especially writedown-happy, analyst William Tanona writes, estimating that Citi will take a whopping $18.5 billion fall, JPMorgan $11.5 billion, and Merrill $3.4 billion. His previous estimates were $11 billion, $6 billion, and $1.7 billion, respectively. (More Goldman Sachs stories.)