Czechs little exposed to subprime -c.banker

...Vice-Governor Miroslav Singer was quoted as saying in a newspaper interview.

Singer told the daily Hospodarske Noviny that the CNB had found out that bad investments formed a very insignificant part of portfolios at several Czech institutions, which could eat into their profits at worst.

"Nothing dramatic is going on in the Czech Republic. In the entire financial system, there are fractions of a percent of problematic investments," Singer told the business daily Hospodarske Noviny.

"Compared with this, the regularly conducted bank write-offs are much higher," he added.

Global financial markets have suffered from a credit crunch, which first bit in August when interbank lending dried up as banks realised they did not know which was dangerously exposed to a U.S. subprime mortgage meltdown.

Subprime mortgages -- lent to people ill-equipped to pay them back -- were bundled up into complex financial products and sold on around the globe, fanning uncertainty about where the exposure lies. (Reporting by Marek Petrus, editing by Mike Peacock)

Keywords: CZECH CENTRALBANKER/

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]