NAMA?!?

When I got asked to blog about NAMA, I'm not going to lie to you all I have heard of it but never knew what it was all about? So after looking it up this is what I got, the letters stand for the National Assets Management Agency.  Its an agency set up by the Government to buy assets such as loans, from banks. Apparently its supposed to take the riskier loan classes away from the balance sheets of the banks and make the banks safer and more secure for depositors and investors. Oh and its supposed to ensure stability in our financial system and free up the banks to lend businesses and households.


Our Taoiseach has also expressed recently in the news that the National Assets Management Agency is vital if the country is to avoid years of stagnation or worse. What I can gather is NAMA is becoming responsible for sorting out the mess with the banks at the minute, NAMA will say how much of a discount it will put on the property, land and development portfolios at the five participating institutions. The original estimate was for a 30% discount on loans transferred to NAMA, but the latest percentage to be released is 60%  for Nationwide.  Also the Financial Regulator has to decide how much money the banks will need to set aside for bad loans, which will shine a light on how much capital the lenders will need. 


There is also a lot of speculation that 40% of Bank of Ireland and over 70% of AIB will end up in State ownership. These rumors have made people nervous and has hit the bank share hard, which is understandable as confidence in the country's banking system has diminished. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX4xK8N04yQ




I personally think this link expresses the worried opinions of the Nation.