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| BYE BYE BANKS – BUY BUY HAPPINESS… |
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| 14 February 2013 |
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| CHAIM EVEN-ZOHAR |
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| Let's hope that famous husband-and-wife team of lyric writers, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, will forgive me for twisting their famous song "Bye bye love, bye bye happiness". ABN-AMRO Bank, since it was purchased by the Dutch government, has now said "bye bye" twice to a diamond client after waiving, that is, forgiving, some US$50 million in debt in each instance. Whether the second, as yet unconfirmed amount is precise is beside the point - the exact amount of the "haircut" may have been less - but it was sizeable. As one banker phrased it "it is sad to incur losses indeed and it does not always help but [it] is a carefully evaluated decision." |
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