Video

Welcome to interest.co.nz's morning briefing of what's news here and around the world. Everything you need to start the day in 90 seconds at 9'oclock.... Starting nowWith a roundup today I'm calling the morning margin call.Because that's been the theme overnight where the banks have made margin calls on some big lenders that is likely to force them into administration or bankruptcy.Firstly news from late yesterday that National Australia Bank called the loans it had made to the owners of Allco Financial Group. These so-called Allco Principals had borrowed 110 million dollars against shares they held in Allco itself. Now after Allco's share price collapsed National Australia Bank, which owns the BNZ, has repossessed those shares and also some in Allco HIT, the fund that owns strategic finance. NAB and the Bank of Scotland have also appointed an administrator to Allco Principals. You'd have to say that the Allco group's days look numbered. Other Australian banks, including Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which owns ASB, have billions of dollars in debts outstanding in Allco. They are not big enough to threaten the banks, but it will have a chilling effect on the lending appetites at these big banks.Overnight, a big US mortgage bank called Thornberg after its margin calls from its bankers forced it close to bankruptcy. Its shares collapsed. And the Carlyle Group, the world's second biggest private equity fund, is having big problems with its mortgage bond fund. It failed to pay margin calls last night for $37 million of loans. It has bought $22 billion of AAA mortgage bonds.This sub-prime crisis gets uglier and spreads wider by the day..That was 90 seconds at 9 o'clock. I'm Bernard Hickey for interest.co.nz.