He said banks' mortgage-based assets are being exchanged for safer government debt, therefore the government is taking the banks' risks onto its balance sheet.

BBC: Government plans to help UK banks

Nor have investors grown any more confident about their ability to price the banks' toxic mortgage-backed assets: Merrill Lynch's cut-price sale of collateralised-debt obligations in July has had few imitators.

ECONOMIST: American banks

The company caters to fund managers and institutional investors trading in illiquid assets like private company stock, bankruptcy claims, loans, mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations.

FORBES: Asian Heavyweights Bet On SecondMarket