I WONDER HOW MUCH MORE OF THIS WE CAN EXPECT

Swiss Re Writes Down $1.07 Billion on Credit Swaps (Update1)
By Warren Giles

Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Swiss Reinsurance Co., the world's biggest reinsurer, said it wrote down 1.2 billion Swiss francs ($1.07 billion) related to two credit default swaps.

The loss, worth 981 million francs after tax, was from credit default swaps designed to provide protection for a client against a fall in the value of a portfolio, Zurich-based Swiss Re said today in an e-mailed statement.

The portfolios ``consist largely of mortgage-backed securities,'' Swiss Re said in the statement, with the ``majority of the exposure'' to prime and mid-prime securities. There is ``exposure to subprime and asset-backed securities in the form of collateralized debt obligations,'' the reinsurer said.

Swiss Re valued the ABS CDOs to zero and the subprime securities to 62 percent of their value, bringing the market value of the portfolio to 3.6 billion francs, the company said.