( dpa ) - US investment bank Merrill Lynch is expected to write down 15 billion dollars in losses from the credit crunch in the United States, almost twice its original loss estimate, The New York Times reported Friday.
The expected losses have prompted the bank to seek some 4 billion dollars in additional capital, the newspaper said.
The bank is expected to announce the loss when it reports its earnings on Thursday.
Analysts had expected Merrill Lynch to take a 12-billion-dollar hit over bad mortgage investments. The bank had an 8.4-billion-dollar write-down in the third quarter of 2007.