PLANET BUSINESS

Today's other stories in brief

THE CRUNCH NUMBERS:

$200 billion

- writedowns relating to the US subprime mortgage market add up to at least this sum at the world's biggest financial companies, with insurers writing down at least $38 billion as the credit crisis rumbles on, claiming investment bank Bear Stearns as its latest casualty

€15 billion

- money leant by the European Central Bank (ECB) to banks just to tide them over for the Easter weekend, after 44 institutions asked for a total of €65.8 billion. Rumours that the ECB's initial offer was a truck of specially made Credit Crunchie Easter eggs could not be substantiated

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"The Irish banking sector remains robust and has no material exposures to the subprime market."

- Central Bank governor John Hurley doesn't want to see any queues of frantic depositors outside the nation's bank branches when they reopen for business on Tuesday morning

QUOTE OF THE WEEK (2)

"My life has been flushed down the drain." - a senior executive at Bear Stearns rues the bank's fire sale to JP Morgan.

GOOD CREDIT

HBOS

"Everything's fine . . . nothing to see here . . . and stop spreading nasty rumours about us," was the tone of Halifax Bank of Scotland chief executive Andy Hornby's message to the public, as "trash and cash" traders (AKA "modern-day bank robbers") spread false rumours that the bank was facing a Northern Rock-style liquidity crisis and then pocketed €100 million through short-selling when its shares plunged 20 per cent.

Lehman Brothers

Lehman Brothers are not to be confused with the owners of Surf washing powder, who famously assure unsatisfied customers that if they're not happy "Lever Brothers will give you your money back". But the US's fourth biggest investment bank is also more than capable of giving people's money back, with chief financial officer Erin Callan pooh-poohing concerns about large-scale withdrawals and slips in liquidity.

BAD CREDIT

Joe Lewis

The billionaire tycoon behind Tottenham Hotspur football club came 16th in the 2007 Sunday Times Rich List, a position he is unlikely to fill this year now that the 71-year-old has lost $1.19 billion - almost half his wealth - on his 9.3 per cent stake in Bear Stearns. Born in the East End of London, Lewis made his fortune through currency trading and is said to have currency trading screens in almost every room of his Bahamas mansion, but his bid to call the bottom of the market has backfired spectacularly.