That’s derivatives and not total assets.
Derivatives can be riskier or safer than the underlying asset. After the Orange County bankruptcy, people associated derivatives with high risk. And some are but some aren’t.
For example with mortgage derivatives, they can split the interest payments off from the principle payments. The interest payment are a lot more risky than the underlying mortgage, because of the risk of early payoff. While the Principle payments are safer and are secured by the underlying property.
Likewise if you split the mortgage by short term payments vs long term payments, the long term payments are riskier and are thus allocated a higher interest than the mortgage as a whole. The short term payments are loved my money market funds because the maturities fit within their requirements. And while the interest is lower than the mortgage as a whole, it’s higher than they can get elsewhere.
So that chart doesn’t really tell you much. Because you don’t know total assets, and you don’t know the risk profile of the derivatives.
Great chart.
My view is that you want your money in the banks with the largest derivatives exposure.
They are absolutely too big to fail—if they fail the entire national and in fact world economy collapses—and your bank account will be the least of your problems.
You do not want to be the bagholder in a smaller bank that can be allowed to fail.