November 6, 2007 (LPAC)--Le Monde's London correspondent reports wild rumors haunting the City's banking establishment on the real impact of the "subprime" crisis, that is, the current global financial meltdown:

1) "Barclays appears the most fragile" because of the extent of the losses of its subsidiary BarCap. On November 2nd, Barclays had to deny it had gone to the Bank of England's special discount window for help. At the same time, it started buying its own stock in large quantities. Bob Diamond, the CEO of BarCap, "underestimated the exposure of his firm to the current subprime difficulties."

2) Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is also suffering major difficulties and could sell its brokerage firm Hoare Govett.

3) HSBC is shaky. It was forced to close Decision One Mortgage, its US subsidiary specializing in subprime mortgages, and "the build-up of large provisions (against defaults) underlines the crisis of confidence." HSBC's CEO Stephen Green is facing a revolt of stockholders.

4) Lloyds TSB is keeping quiet about its plan to buy Northern Rock, since "nothing seems to stem the bleeding" of that failed London bank. Northern Rock has borrowed 23 billion pounds ($46 billion) to try to cover the pullouts of its panicked depositors. Any rescue bank will make the demise "more painful and longer than predicted," writes Le Monde.