Panel: Bad Data Exacerbated Sub-Prime Debacle

The losses hit banks with exposure to sub-prime mortgages through investments in mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs)-structured products that enabled mortgage lenders to transfer the risk of mortgage defaults to the banks- while unexpected home-price depreciation precipitated the losses by causing homeowners to default on their loans at record levels, panelists said.

At last week's panel, Doug Lucas, head of CDO research at UBS, which last month announced $18