The US financial losses from the credit crisis might reach $3.6 trillion, suggesting that the banking system in the United States was “effectively insolvent,” Nouriel Roubini, New York University professor who predicted the 2008 economic crisis, said Tuesday. “I've found that credit losses could peak at a level of $3.6 trillion for US institutions, half of them by banks and broker-dealers,” Roubini said at a conference in Dubai. “If that's true, it means the US banking system is effectively insolvent, because it starts with a capital of $1.4 trillion. This is a systemic banking crisis.” Losses and write-downs at financial companies worldwide have risen to more than $1 trillion since the credit crisis began in 2007. Bank of America, the largest US bank by assets, posted a quarterly loss of $1.79 billion last week, its first since 1991, and has received $138 billion in emergency government funds. Citigroup posted an $8.29 billion fourth-quarter loss, completing its worst year, and plans to split in two under the plan by its chief executive, Vikram Pandit, to rebuild a capital base eroded by the crisis. “The problems of Citi, Bank of America and others suggest the system is bankrupt,” Roubini said. “In Europe, it's the same thing.” Stocks in Europe, Canada and Brazil fell on speculation that government efforts to shore up the financial industry would fail to stem the deepening global recession. Royal Bank of Scotland Group said it expected to post a loss of as much as £28 billion, or $41 billion for 2008.
