The sub-prime mess still has an impact

Today, the National Australia Bank announced an increase in its provisioning by $830 million for exposure to CDO (collateralised debt obligations) which house some of its exposure to the US sub-prime market. NAB's share price dropped by over 10% on the announcement. The disclosure related question, of course, is when did they know about this?

Rights issues - disappearing?

Possibly, according to Bryan Frith in The Australian. They are being replaced by "accelerated renounceable entitlement offers". Primarily it seems to reduce the risk faced by underwriters.