In a quarterly filing today, Merrill Lynch & Co. dislosed that Level III assets had jumped to nearly $70 billion, an increase of 70% over the same quarter of 2007. The firm also stated that more than $16 billion of this exposure is related to subprime. Definitely a sign of things to come though relative to Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Lehman, Merrill’s ratio of Level III assets/tangible equity looks good at 90%. Goldman, Morgan, and Lehman are all above 200% which is where more of the estimated US$1 trillion in credit crunch losses will come from.
