Posted on 06/04/2024 5:35:17 AM PDT by george76
Unrealized losses in the US banking system are once again on the rise, according to new numbers from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
In its Quarterly Banking Profile report, the FDIC says banks are now saddled with more than half a trillion dollars in paper losses on their balance sheets, due largely to exposure to the residential real estate market.
Unrealized losses represent the difference between the price banks paid for securities and the current market value of those assets.
Although banks can hold securities until they mature without marking them to market on their balance sheets, unrealized losses can become an extreme liability when banks need liquidity.
“Unrealized losses on available-for-sale and held-to-maturity securities increased by $39 billion to $517 billion in the first quarter. Higher unrealized losses on residential mortgage-backed securities, resulting from higher mortgage rates in the first quarter, drove the overall increase. This is the ninth straight quarter of unusually high unrealized losses since the Federal Reserve began to raise interest rates in first quarter 2022.”
The FDIC also says that the number of lenders on its Problem Bank List rose last quarter. According to the agency, these banks are on the brink of insolvency due to financial, operational, or managerial weakness or a combination of such issues.
“The number of banks on the Problem Bank List, those with a CAMELS composite rating of ‘4’ or ‘5’ increased from 52 in fourth quarter 2023 to 63 in first quarter 2024. The number of problem banks represented 1.4% of total banks, which was within the normal range for non-crisis periods of 1% to 2% of all banks. Total assets held by problem banks increased $15.8 billion to $82.1 billion during the quarter.”
While the FDIC says that the health of the US banking system is at no imminent risk, it warns that persistent inflation, volatile market rates and geopolitical concerns continue to put pressure on the industry.
“These issues could cause credit quality, earnings, and liquidity challenges for the industry. In addition, deterioration in certain loan portfolios, particularly office properties and credit card loans, continues to warrant monitoring. These issues, together with funding and margin pressures, will remain matters of ongoing supervisory attention by the FDIC.”
We are so screwed.
The average assets of these banks is therefore $1.3 billion. These would be among the smallest banks in the US, with only a handful of branches.
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No problem. As long as these banks are located on the East and West Coasts, and Chicago, the Feds will save them.
If these were loans to oil guys in Oklahoma and Texas, the Feds would be all over them, closing banks left and right and ensuring the best assets ended up controlled by their friends on Wall Street.
Sounds like 2008 all over again. Wonder if banks are still making loans to people who shouldn’t be getting them? Wait...how dumb am I? OF COURSE they are!
2022: Jim Cramer recommends Signature Bank.
2023: Signature Bank shuts down.
How does he do it?
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/4137986/posts
[$517,000,000,000 in Unrealized Losses Hit US Banking System, FDIC Says 63 Lenders on Brink of Insolvency]
Can we distract from all of that with a nuclear World War III?
Asking for a friend........(well, not really)
[Sounds like 2008 all over again.]
I’ve been saying that 2008 is coming again. Only worse.
Hope that I am wrong. I’ll be happier to be wrong on this, for sure. MUCH happier.
No we’re not. Print more money, problem solved.
How do we find the CAMELS number for our bank?
Surely the banks would give it out if asked ...
85000 Yotta accounts lock
Nearly 200 more banks may be vulnerable to the same type of risk that took down ( woke ) Silicon Valley Bank..
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4139140/posts
FDIC is warning that persistent inflation is a problem.
Can interest rates be raised to fight inflation? That would cause problems.
If interest rates were cut would that be politically helpful for Biden? Yup. They may not actually choose this, but I’d say inflation is more likely to get worse than it is to get better.
“unrealized” BS!
This election cycle is a repeat of 2008. When the banking crisis hit in the fall of 2008, McCain rightly suspended his campaign to go back to Washington to work on a bill to address the problem. Obama mocked him for it. McCain foolishly voted for the bailout bill, which was effectively a bailout of investment banks in New York city. If he had resisted that bailout and instead proposed a recapitalization of the regional banks, I believe he would have won the election. If the same crisis comes to fruition this fall, Trump needs to call out such a bailout as a bailout of New York, Chicago and California and instead argue for bailing out the regional banks, spread throughout the country.
So the last bailout wasn’t the last bailout. It’s no secret. Bailouts are a huge windfall for the political class in power. It’s the 10% for the big guy problem. And it appears that openly soliciting and taking bribes and getting caught is, oh well, how else you gonna pay for service?
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