Wells Fargo ( WFC) and US Bancorp ( USB), however, trade far above their tangible book value, and their non-deposit liabilities make up just 21.7% and 23.2% of their total liabilities, respectively.

FORBES: Connect

As such, their book value, or the difference between assets and liabilities, more accurately reflects market conditions that of other companies.

FORBES: Magazine Article

But the Financial Times reported that financial stocks are trading above the book value (assets, including cash, minus liabilities) of the companies for the first time since July.

FORBES: Connect

If you have fixed liabilities not doing well on the asset side of your book, that is fatal.

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Mr Osborne will also say the sale's valuation of Northern Rock's "price-to-book value ratio" - that is, its assets minus its liabilities - is higher than peers Barclays, Lloyds TSB or the Royal Bank of Scotland.

BBC: Northern Rock: Osborne to reveal EU deal over 2013 sale

The shares have climbed more than 35% since, yet still trade at a discount of 23% to book value, the difference, or net worth, between its assets and its liabilities.

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But the oil-service firms will get only the book value of their assets, paid in government bonds and with deductions for any labour or environmental liabilities the government adduces.

ECONOMIST: Venezuela's oil industry: Skint | The