Bank Holding Companies and Other Financial Institutions

Bank Holding Companies

The Flow of Funds accounts from the Federal Reserve System just came out today. This gives us a chance to look at parts of the financial system that we do not get to look at on a more frequent basis.

In terms of the banking sector, one area of interest at this time is the activity going on in bank holding companies. In terms of assets, bank holding companies, at the end of the third quarter, 2009, are holding $2.8 trillion in assets, up from $1.9 trillion one year ago and up from $1.8 trillion at the end of 2007. So assets in bank holding companies rose by almost 50% in the past year.

The large increase in assets came in the area of investments in nonbank subsidiaries. The rise from the end of the third quarter of 2008 was $537 billion, or 135%. The increase since the end of 2007 was $592 billion, or an increase of 172%

These holding companies also increased their investment in bank subsidiaries as well, but only by $164 billion or by 14% since the end of the third quarter 2008. The increase since the end of 2007 was $188 billion.

Financing this increase in assets was an increase in bonds issued by these holding companies and in residual equity. The net increase in corporate bonds issued was $508 billion for the year ending in the third quarter of 2009. The net increase since the end of 2007 was $553 billion.
There was roughly an $400 billion increase in the residual equity of these organizations during this time period. The increase in residual equity since the end of 2007 was approximately $500 billion.

These increases in bank holding company assets took place at the same time that total assets in U. S. chartered commercial banking sector rose only by about $139 billion from the third quarter of 2008 to the third quarter of 2009. It should be noted that during this same time period total bank loans in the banking industry declined by almost $383 billion, with reductions taking place in every category of loan.

Note that since the end of the third quarter 2008, vault cash and reserves at the Federal Reserve rose by $384 billion. The increase since the end of 2007 was $540 billion.

It is obvious that banks and bank holding companies are not doing the ordinary business of banking.

The commercial banks, themselves, are becoming “pools of liquidity”, but they are not lending.

It seems that bank holding companies, however, are further diversifying into nonbank subsidiaries because of the tremendous opportunities for profit that are now available to them in these areas. Also, it seems as if this is all happening for the largest banks and the largest bank holding companies.

So, here is the picture: commercial banks are essentially static right now; nothing is happening in the industry as a whole.

Bank holding companies are moving ahead full steam: and what they are doing is very, very profitable!

Saving Institutions

The thrift industry continues to shrink!

In the last four quarters, the total financial assets in savings and loan associations, mutual savings banks, and federal savings banks fell by $145 billion, or by about 10%, to just $1.4 trillion. Since the end of 2007, financial assets have fallen by $442 billion, or by about 25%.

One really has to wonder about the existence of this part of the finance industry and the need for such an expensive regulatory structure to support it.

Its main reason for existence, the issuing of mortgages, continues to erode as mortgages on the books of these savings institutions fell by $155 over the past year, an 18% decline. Since the end of 2007, mortgages at these institutions fell by $367 billion, a decline of one-third. Statistics indicate that, on average, institutions in this industry are just about breaking even, profit-wise.

Although it is not getting a lot of headlines in the press, the savings industry is not doing too well. Maybe it is now too insignificant to warrant much attention!

Credit-Unions

Credit unions continue to grow. They ended the third quarter at $873.4 billion in total financial assets, increasing by $73 billion over the last four quarters.

One wonders when the total assets at credit unions are going to exceed that at savings institutions.

Although the totals are not large, credit unions continue to increase their loan portfolios across the board.

The total amount of credit extended by credit unions was $592 billion at the end of the third quarter 2009, roughly two-thirds of the $875 billion in loans on the books of savings institutions. Credit unions have only about 63% of the assets that savings institutions do.

Mortgages on the books at credit unions are about 44% of the amount of mortgages that sit on the books of savings institutions, up from 35% at the end of the third quarter in 2008. But, consumer loans are 308% of the total of consumer loans at savings institutions. This is just a little higher than it was one year ago.

Credit unions seem to be doing very well and continue to be on the rise!