Wall Street Journal (September 5)
“A decade after fueling a crisis that nearly brought down the global financial system, America’s banks are ruling it. They earned 62% of global investment-banking fees last year, up from 53% in 2011.” In 2018, “U.S. banks took home $7 of every $10 in merger fees, $6 of every $10 in stock commissions, and $6 of every $10 paid to hold and move corporate cash.”
Tags: Banks, Crisis, Financial system, Investment-banking fees, Merger fees, Stock commissions, U.S.
Bloomberg (June 10)
“Pity Europe’s banks. For years, they have been in retreat, losing business in their own back yards to Wall Street rivals. Now the battlefront is shifting – but what looks like an opportunity to gain ground may be just the opposite…. Shackled by sluggish economic growth at home and record-low interest rates that are crushing margins, European firms have been unable to compete with U.S. rivals in trading and capital markets. Those same dynamics look set to play out again in transaction banking,” which is set to displace fixed income as the largest revenue driver by 2020.
Tags: Banks, Battlefront, Capital markets, Economic growth, Europe, Fixed income, Interest rates, Margins, Retreat, Rivals, Trading, Transaction banking, U.S., Wall Street
Reuters (August 16)
“Banks still have to work to rebuild public trust, despite years of restructuring and paying fines and compensation for misbehaviour.” A YouGov survey found that “66 percent of adults in Britain do not trust banks to work in the best interests of society.”
Tags: Banks, Compensation, Fines, Misbehaviour, Public trust, Restructuring, Society, Survey, Trust, UK, YouGov
Washington Post (August 14)
“Even in a world where the United States’ military and diplomatic power seems to be in retreat, there is an element of the U.S.-led order that’s as strong as ever — our dominance of the global economy.” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey “may think he can bluff his way through the Brunson crisis, but Turkish banks, construction companies and bondholders know better. In the still-global economy, going it alone really isn’t an option… This summer, as ever, we sink or swim together.”
Tags: Banks, Bondholders, Brunson, Construction, Crisis, Diplomatic, Dominance, Erdogan, Global economy, Military, Power, Retreat, Turkey, U.S.
South China Morning Post (April 2)
Banks and regulators in China have engaged in a delicate dance between reducing non-performing loans (NPLs) and maintaining profits. “That’s why the NPL ratios of the nation’s key banks all hover at about the same level–now around 1.7 per cent of loans,” though “Fitch estimates that the real ratio could be as high as 20 per cent, implying total NPLs of 19 trillion yuan (US$3 trillion).” But the regulator is now becoming more demanding in NPL reduction and unforgiving of gimmicks previously employed to hide NPLs. “Given Beijing’s focus on the stability of the financial system, the flow of NPLs into the market should pick up considerably in the next two to three years, providing ample opportunity for new investors.”
Tags: Banks, China, Fitch, Gimmicks, Investors, Market, NPLs, Opportunity, Profits, Regulators
The Economist (June 10)
“As European bank crises go,” the demise of Banco Popular “was an orderly one,” even something of a “triumph…. Spain’s government, the European Commission and Santander all cheered the outcome as a model European response to a bank crisis.”
Tags: Banco Popular, Banks, Crises, EC, Europe, Government, Orderly, Santander, Spain, Triumph
Euromoney (February Issue)
“New accounting rules requiring banks to take upfront charges against possible losses through the full life of a loan promise damaging pro-cyclicality.” IFRS 9 comes into effect next January. It “will require banks to recognize expected loan losses even before borrowers miss a single interest or principal repayment.” This major change “will hit both reported earnings and capital even if a borrower manages to remain current on debt servicing.” Uncertainty abounds, but it looks like “US and Japanese banks will be subject to their own variant, current expected credit loss (CECL), under US GAAP.”
Tags: Accounting rules, Banks, Borrowers, Capital, CECL, Earnings, GAAP, IFRS 9, Interest, Loan losses, Principal, Repayment, Upfront charges
Institutional Investor (October 21)
“Negative interest rates are nothing new in Europe, where some central banks have effectively been charging depositors since 2014. But if rates stay below zero much longer, the region’s banks and institutional investors may have to rethink their portfolios to keep afloat.”
Tags: Banks, Central banks, Depositors, Europe, Institutional investors, Negative interest, Portfolios, Rates
Financial Times (September 23)
“US banks have achieved a clean sweep of the top five places in global investment banking for the first time in at least six years.” This highlights “the country’s dominance of investment banking since the financial crisis.”
Tags: Banks, Dominance, Financial Crisis, Investment banking, U.S.
Institutional Investor (July 29)
U.S. REITs have soared on a “torrid rally.” Though the momentum will slow, strong fundamentals should underpin the sector, which is also benefiting from negative interest overseas. “The economy’s seven-year recovery should sustain real estate demand.” Moreover, “banks’ conservative real estate-lending policies in the wake of massive losses during the financial crisis should continue to limit supply.”
Tags: Banks, Demand, Financial Crisis, Fundamentals, Lending, Negative interest, Rally, Real estate, Recovery, REITs, Supply, U.S.
