Barclays Takes $3B+ Mortgage-Related Hit

Barclays PLC, London, has reported the equivalent of a $3.18 billion mortgage-related writedown and profit to shareholders equal to about $8.58 billion for 2007, the latter down from about $8.87 billion the previous year. "In the second half, we were not immune from the impact of credit market turbulence," the company said, adding that it felt it managed the risk relatively well. Barclays bought EquiFirst, a U.S. subprime originator, early last year and indicated that as of Dec. 31 it still had billions of dollars of U.S. subprime whole loan and net trading book exposure from the subsidiary, consisting primarily of first-lien product with an average 80% loan-to-value ratio.