Bank Market Capitalisation

Banks. Safe, dependable banks. They put out ads with smiling executives in nice suits who greet you at the door with a firm handshake and seat you in comfortable surroundings with tea and biscuits. Or, in New Zealand, a horse going mad on a high country back block, for some reason.

This comfort was based on easy pickings in a time of rising house and commodity prices, and executives who thought that it was really easy to make money all the time, with little regard for the future, but huge regard for their prospective bonus.

Where are these banks now? This morning I received a graphic representation of where market capitalisation has gone since the beginning of the crunch. It's ugly.



To put some kind of perspective on it, the percentage drops are as follows:

RBS: down 96%
Citigroup: down 92.5%
Barclays: down 92%

Some of the less affected (!) banks:

Santander: down 45%
JP Morgan: down 48%
HSBC: down 55%

Still feel that banks are safe?