Overseas lending, bank exposure to Cyprus around $100 billion

Overseas lenders, excluding those in Russia, had $59.2 billion of outstanding loans to Cyprus at the end of September, according to Bank for International Settlements (BIS) data.

BIS statistics, the only ones to chart cross-border lending around the world, do not include loans from Russia. Ratings agency Moody’s estimates Russian bank loans to Cyprus-based companies of Russian origin were $30-40 billion.

The BIS data show lenders from Greece and Germany have the biggest exposures to Cyprus of the reporting countries.

Cyprus on Monday reached a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) rescue plan to avoid economic meltdown after more than a week of intense scrutiny on the island’s future.

Some banks disclose their loans to Cyprus, but the European Banking Authority has not forced banks to release a breakdown since a 2011 stress-test.

That showed Greece’s Alpha Bank had a 4.8 billion euro exposure at the end of 2010, which it said stood at 4.6 billion at the end of September.

Germany’s HSH Nordbank had about 1.6 billion euros in corporate loans to Cyprus at the end of September, mainly to ships belonging to German and international firms that are registered in Cyprus.

Dutch group ING had about 900 million euros exposure at the end of last year to companies registered in Cyprus. Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo said its loan exposure was 138 million euros.

Britain’s HSBC had a net exposure of about $400 million to Cyprus at the end of 2012, Barclays said its net exposure was 323 million pounds and RBS had loans of 377 million pounds, mostly in corporate loans.

The following shows the exposure of leading countries to Cyprus at the end of September (in billions of dollars)

COUNTRY EXPOSURE TO CYPRUS (in millions of dollars)

Russia* 30-40

Greece 16.4

Germany 7.6

France 2.5

Switzerland 2.2

United Kingdom 2.2

Netherlands 1.9

Austria 1.7

United States 1.7

Italy 1.6

Sweden 1.4

(SOURCE: Bank for International Settlements consolidated banking statistics for end-September, *except for Russia estimate by Moody’s. NOTE: The BIS statistics show cross-border lending of lenders in BIS-reporting countries, on the basis of the nationality of the lenders’ ultimate owner and of the immediate borrower. Borrowers include banks, non-bank private sector and public sector.)

[Reuters]