Credit quality

The rescue bill enabled banks to protect loans in forbearance from an immediate hit to a borrower’s credit report, but experts say affected consumers may have trouble getting loans after the pandemic ends.

The economic contraction caused by the coronavirus pandemic has been worse than the Wall Street firm had modeled two months ago, its president John Waldron said Wednesday.

The Toronto company also said it set aside 232 million this year for U.S. regulatory probes into the bank’s metals-trading practices and costs tied to the wind-down of that business.

The bank is trying to recover millions of dollars in returned deposits. It also has a $14 million loan to the company that allegedly conducted the scheme.

Some lenders are issuing debt and preferred stock to provide an extra buffer for credit losses. Others are preparing for growth opportunities.

The second-quarter jump in provisions may be three to four times higher than a year earlier and will be mostly for loans that have yet to go bad, analysts said.

Lenders are scrambling to pause ranchers’ loan payments as meat processing plant shutdowns during the pandemic threaten $25 billion in losses for the livestock industry.

The Pittsburgh company’s sale of its stake in the asset manager yielded billions of dollars that could cushion the pandemic’s economic blow and eventually help fund a big acquisition.

The upstarts enjoyed rapid growth during the long economic expansion. Now they are on the ropes.

More write-downs seem inevitable as the coronavirus outbreak wreaks havoc on the economy and bank stocks.