As discussed in our new book, The Age of Deleveraging, back in mid-2008, many FDIC-insured institutions were heavily leveraged but still had an average capital-to-asset ratio of 7.9%.

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Sunil Garg, a banking analyst at JPMorgan in Hong Kong, said in a note that HSBC would probably be able to fund the acquisition internally, with the purchase representing 3.5% of its asset base, or an 80-basis-point impact on its Tier 1 capital ratio.

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