Hokuyo's solution was to buy two-thirds of Takugin's doubtful loans at a discount.

ECONOMIST: Japanese banks

Bankers fear new regulations might impose stricter provisioning requirements for their doubtful loans.

ECONOMIST: Money for nothing

To do so would risk a fresh credit crunch, as banks called in their more doubtful loans and market discipline penalised undeserving companies.

ECONOMIST: But in Asia they will take time to build

This ratio is likely to move up again when, from December, the banks have to begin making provisions for doubtful loans as well as for those already in default.

ECONOMIST: South Korean banks

In any case, it would come as no shock to a man or woman of the world to discover that doubtful loans were significantly higher than the sums officially acknowledged.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Indeed, arguably the opposite is happening as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two nationalised mortgage agencies, seek to compel banks to buy back loans of doubtful quality they had sold to the agencies.

ECONOMIST: The American economy

This amount excludes loans already classified as doubtful, which are being disposed of under the defined-policy framework.

ECONOMIST: Fish and Fischler

It is doubtful that the concentration on less-well-known pictures (many of them seldom-seen loans from private collections) will convince people that Bonnard is, as Ms Amory claims, a modernist.

ECONOMIST: A French master reassessed