Of course PNC has lots of company.
During that exact same week, several other prominent banks made similar moves…
JPMorgan Chase followed closely with 18 filings—three in Ohio, two each in Connecticut and South Carolina, and one each in 11 states, including New York, Illinois, Florida, and Massachusetts.
Citizens Bank came in third with eight branch closure filings—six in New York, and one each in Massachusetts and Delaware. Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank filed for seven closures—three in Tennessee and one each in Missouri, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Illinois.
Bank of America made five filings—two in New York and one each in Texas, Massachusetts, and California.
Citibank filed for two branch closures, and Sterling, Bremer, First National Bank of Hughes Springs, Windsor FS&LA, and Aroostook County FS&LA made one filing each.
Altogether, banks filed to shut down 64 branches.
Read that last sentence again.
In just one week, U.S. banks decided to shut down a total of 64 branches.
That is stunning.
What we are witnessing right now is a tsunami of branch closures.
Unfortunately, even more trouble is coming for our banks because the real estate industry is a total mess right now.
New home sales in the United States fell in October as typical mortgage rates reached their highest levels this year.
Sales of newly constructed homes fell 5.6% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 679,000, from a revised rate of 719,000 in September, according to a joint report from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Census Bureau.
Prices for new homes are falling as well…
So the median price of new single-family houses sold in October fell by 3.1% from September, to $409,300 (red line), the lowest since August 2021, down by 17.6% from a year ago, which had been the peak, according to data from the Census Bureau today. The three-month moving average is down by nearly 12% from its peak in December last year (green).
These are contract prices and do not include the costs of mortgage-rate buydowns and other incentives such as free upgrades. But they do reflect the lower price points due to smaller footprints and the “de-amenitizing.”
ust check out these new numbers that were released several days ago by Trepp…
The volume of CMBS loans that are classified as delinquent increased by 49.4% during the 10 months through October to $27.91 billion. That volume amounts to 5.07% of the $601.98 billion universe tracked by Trepp. In contrast, delinquencies at the end of last year amounted to 3.03% of the $616.15 billion universe then extant.
Wow.
It turns out that office buildings are the primary reason why delinquencies are rising at such an astounding pace…
When the real estate industry falls on hard times, a financial crisis is usually right around the corner.
Needless to say, it isn’t just U.S. banks that are in trouble right now.
Major banks all over the globe are getting hit really hard, and that includes Metro Bank in the UK…
Metro Bank shareholders have backed a multi-million pound rescue deal aimed at securing the bank’s future.
The vote was on a package the bank agreed last month to raise extra funds from investors and refinance debt. Metro’s share price had plunged in September following reports it needed to raise cash to shore up its finances.
In the days ahead, we are going to hear about a lot more banks that need to “shore up” their finances.
And it is inevitable that more banks will fail.
What we have seen so far is just the beginning. Our banks are going to get into even deeper trouble during the days ahead, and that is really bad news for all of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment