James P. Scanlan | Aug 14
The complaint against Wells Fargo highlights problems in comparing borrowers from different racial and ethnic groups.
Harry Terris | Aug 10
Loan demand is soft and competition for borrowers is intense, creating tension between building portfolios and sustaining yields. Some banks have posted leaps in volume just to tread water in profitability.
Harry Terris | Aug 09
Stories about buyout groups dissolving and heavy-handed regulation make private equity sound like the dog that never barked in banking. But such firms have notched hundreds of deals since the crisis, and the rollup machines they've created are poised to keep going.
Harry Terris | Aug 03
Across the industry, the formation of new credit problems has fallen to pre-recession levels. Assets have continued to sour at a troubling pace at some banks, however.
Harry Terris | Jul 27
Revenue margins have dipped at some major issuers in recent months, but, by and large, they have emerged intact from a bruising economic downturn and a sea change in regulation.
Harry Terris | Jul 24
The yield curve flattened and it showed in margins among the first wave of banks to post second quarter results. But a sizeable group used some remaining levers – like the retirement of trust-preferred securities – to buck the trend.
Harry Terris | Jul 11
Dozens of small banks have substantially increased commercial and industrial lending over the past few years. Supervisors are worried that some may be chasing unfamiliar business down a blind alley.
Harry Terris | Jul 06
Refinancing activity continued to climb over the last three months, as did the gap between consumer and secondary market prices. Expect banks to report another quarter of strong mortgage revenues in the coming weeks.
Harry Terris | Jul 03
Growth in commercial and industrial loans fell to the slowest pace in a year during the period, according to preliminary data. But the increase was still healthy enough to offset contractions in other loan categories, and help drive an expansion in balance sheets.
Harry Terris | Jul 01
In a slow stretch for issuance of bank shares, companies looking to raise capital for acquisitions have come to the fore in offerings that have performed relatively well.
Harry Terris | Jul 01
The effective tax rate for banks has dropped to a range of roughly 30% to 32%, down from a range of roughly 32% to 33% in the years leading up to the recession. Recoveries of deferred tax assets might be the reason.
Harry Terris | Jun 29
Upheaval in funding markets has radically reshaped the liability profile of foreign bank operations in the United States, but they have continued to increase lending despite an exodus of deposits that began in the middle of last year.
Harry Terris | Jun 27
Unlike last summer, deposit levels have been relatively stable recently as the euro crisis has reached a new crescendo. Either the most nervous money has already fled to the shelter of the bank safety net, or tensions are only just building.
Jun 22
Bankers have been complaining that the signature financial bill would send their compliance-related expenses through the roof. So far, the numbers indicate otherwise.
Harry Terris | Jun 21
Fees paid to outside auditors appear to have been relatively stable in recent years. So have legal expenses for smaller institutions since mid-2010, when the 2,000-odd pages of the Dodd-Frank Act became law.
