On Tuesday Eastern Time, rating agency S&P Global downgraded the rating outlook of five regional banks in the United States to "negative". This move may reignite investors' concerns about the health status of the industry.
As of Tuesday, S&P Global had a negative outlook for nine US banks, accounting for 18% of the total number of banks rated by it. S&P Global also stated that most of these ratings are "at least to some extent related to substantial exposure to commercial real estate.".
5 US regional banks have been downgraded
S&P stated that due to its commercial real estate exposure risk, it will invest in First Commonwealth Financial, M& The ratings of T Bank, Synovus Financial, Trustmark, and Valley National Bancorp have been downgraded from stable to negative.
S&P said, "The negative outlook reflects that pressure in the commercial real estate market may damage the asset quality and performance of these five banks. Among the banks we rated, these five banks have the highest exposure to commercial real estate loans."
This year, investors have been increasingly concerned about the commercial real estate exposure of regional banks.
Previously, New York Community Bancorp, citing provisions for non-performing commercial real estate loans, unexpectedly announced quarterly losses, leading to the sell-off of bank stocks in multiple regions of the United States. At present, the bank has sold assets to enrich its balance sheet.
After the COVID-19, as the Federal Reserve continued to raise interest rates, the borrowing costs of the real estate industry continued to rise. At the same time, the continued low occupancy rate of office space in the United States has led to an increase in the default rate of commercial real estate industry debt, which may result in more lending institutions bearing losses when borrowers default.
Investors' concerns about regional banks may intensify
The rating downgrade by S&P Global on Tuesday coincides with the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in the United States.
Last March, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank announced their closure after being run on, making it the second largest bank failure in the United States since the 2008 financial crisis and the third largest bank failure in US history.
The bankruptcies of these two banks have intensified investors' sensitivity to the health status of banks in the United States region. In addition to commercial real estate risk exposure, the US banking industry also faces the challenge of rising deposit costs in the context of high interest rates.
With recent data showing that the US economy is still resilient and inflation stickiness is prominent, in this context, the Federal Reserve may need to wait longer before initiating interest rate cuts, and the real estate industry may continue to be under high interest rate pressure, which will also put operational pressure on US regional banks with high exposure to real estate, especially commercial real estate.