Banks and brokerage firms have managed to sell off about half of the roughly $300m (â¬194m) of hung bridge loans on their books at the beginning of the credit crunch, according to the co-head of JP Morgan Chase's investment bank.
The loans were money that banks had lent firms doing leveraged buyouts, with the intention of securitizing and selling them later. When the credit crunch hit, the banks were unable to sell the loans and had to take charges for moving them to their balance sheets.
