… or, to be blunt, a Swiss taxpayer: proud holders both of a $60bn UBS monopoly-bond smorgasbord, a portfolio comprising a hefty chunk of Alt-A mortgages. As well as, in no particular order, subprime, prime, CMBS, student-loan securities, and a score of ARS notes.
According to the Swiss Central Bank today:
…it is SNB’s view that these assets are of real value…
According to S&P yesterday:
NEW YORK (Standard & Poor’s) Oct. 15, 2008–Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services today placed its ratings on 5,536 classes from 456 U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) transactions backed by U.S. Alternative-A (Alt-A) mortgage collateral issued in 2006 and 2007 on CreditWatch with negative implications.