OECD warns subprime turmoil impact not yet over

BUDAPEST, Nov 15 (Reuters) Global impacts resulting from the U.S. subprime mortgage market crisis are not over yet but more information is needed to determine their full extent, OECD Chief Angel Gurria said in a speech in Budapest on Thursday.

''I don't think we have seen the end of the manifestations of the problem. I think we need more information about the impacts,'' Gurria, Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said.

He said the greatest impact of the recent turmoil was on confidence, and the crisis had accelerated an ongoing slowdown in the pace of global growth.

Banks including Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and UBS have announced colossal losses in recent weeks after a meltdown in securities linked to U.S. subprime mortgages -- loans made to borrowers ill-equipped to repay them.

Markets were first gripped by a credit crunch in August when interbank lending dried up as banks realised they did not know which of them was dangerously exposed to shaky U.S. home loans.

With precarious U.S. mortgages bundled up into complex financial products and sold on around the globe, uncertainty lingers about where the exposure lies although a raft of bank results reports have shed some light.

REUTERS BJR DS1447