HSBC Undervalued Losses by $30 billion

So says activist shareholder Knight Vinke who accused the board of undervaluing subprime assets acquired by its purchase of Homecomings Financial.  Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism has the angle on HSBC's rather curious defense.  Rather that standing strong on its accounting standards and portfolio performance the bank simply punted saying that the assets weren't required to be marked to market because the loans are consumer loans and not mortgages. Yves cites a Financial Times piece in which Vinke estimates that $23 billion of the potential $30 billion comes from the failing portfolio held by Homecomings Financial. Knight Vinke, the activist investor, launched a fresh attack on HSBC yesterday, accusing Europe's biggest bank of flattering its US sub-prime losses by failing to write