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Recently, the Chairman
of Sunturst Bank said lending institutions are not out of the woods yet and
will probably continue to report losses on commercial real estate through
2010. Bank stocks dropped. This is a farce.
Many, if not most, lending institutions are facing the potential of dire straits
for a variety of reasons, all centering around the fact that they still have
massively overvalued loans and loan products, sloppily underwritten and unsecured
(or under secured by deprecating collateral) during a time of high unemployment
and weakening business conditions.
The complicity of US accounting authorities, regulators and government has
not only kicked the can down the road, but has make the can a lot larger. I
outlined this in The
Folly of US Financial Political Games and pointed out the poignant comments
that other have made on the topic as well (Interesting
excerpt from Jeff Nielson, Banks
are actually worse off now than they were before).
I called the collapse of the regional banking system about a year and a half
ago with the Doo Doo 32 (As
I see it, these 32 banks and thrifts are in deep doo-doo!). Glancing at
this list over a year later (no one thought the regional banks were even at
risk when I came out with the list) in search of overlooked bear candidates),
we excluded 6 banks which have been acquired or forced to close and excluded
13 banks with share price of less than $15. Of the remaining 13 banks, we looked
deeper into six banks - BB&T Corp, Glacier Bancorp, Sandy Spring Bancorp,
M&T Bank Corp, TriCo Bancshares, Zions Bancorp. Based on the comparative
analysis of valuation multiples, past stock price performance, bank’s
loan and investment portfolio and operational performance (based on Bloomberg
data and latest filings). I will produce the results of the analysis and the
most Doo Doo bank for 2009 for subscribers over
the nest few days.
The WSJ referenced
in The
Folly of US Financial Political Games holds the key to what will bring
many banks down, even the better run ones have inested in securities th.at
hare dropping in value by 20% to 50%, on a quarterly basis. To make things
considerably worse, as also focused on in the politial games article, the powers
that be have actually endorsed the fraudulent reporting of said assets, essentially
giving the ok to inflate the book value of this junk in order to create earnings
and value where none is available. Of course, as can be seen in the graphs,
the banks share prices have responded accordingly, increasing by one hundred
percent while the market value of their assets drop by 20 to 50%, taking humongous
amounts, if not all, of the banks tangible equity with it. In addition, the
commercial real estate and construction sectors are looking to get much worse
in terms of losses. Just ask Suntrust.
If you don't believe him, just look at the implied leverage of some of these
popular banks and imagine what happens to tangible equity when these investments
drop in value (ex. somre preferred trust and CDO portfolios have lost over
50% in market value this past quarter):
| Bank |
Investments/Common Equity |
| JPM Chase |
744% (Whoa!! - more on them in my next post) |
| Wells Fargo |
373% |
| Bank of America |
371% |
| PNC |
359% |
| Sandy Spring Bancorp |
311% |
| BB&T Corp |
245% |
| U.S. Bancorp |
212% |
| SunTrust |
200% |
Still not convinced, let's look at how conservative select members of the
surviving Doo Doo 32 are in terms of financial cushioning against further loss:
| Bank |
Cushion (Reserve less NPA)
as % of common equity |
| SunTrust |
-23.3% |
| Sandy Spring Bancorp |
-23.1% |
| Zions Bancorp |
-19.9% |
| Glacier Bancorp |
-9.6% |
| BB&T Corp |
-8.3% |
| M&T Bank Corp |
-7.8% |
| TriCo Bancshares |
-7.6% |
Do you still believe this to be a bank bull market in lieu of a bear market
bounce feuled by legalized financial fraud??? Well, let's pick a Doo Doo 32
bank and go through the books, shall we...
Zions Bancorp, a bank with about 4$4.5 billion of tangible equty, also has...
| Investments |
| Level 1 |
267,044 |
6.7% |
| Level 2 |
1,826,631 |
45.9% |
| Level 3 |
1,888,828 |
47.4% |
About half of this banks ENTIRE investment portfolio is not valued by market
transactions, but marked to managements opinion, which of course is most rosy,
to be sure:-)
| Non agency mortgage backed securities as % of equity |
51.1% |
Non-agency MBS has the same value
as used toilet paper in some circles... |
| Mortage loans as % of equity |
654.4% |
I think they over did it on the leverage front here.
So, exactly how is that investment portfolio doing???
| 30-Jun-09 |
Amortized
cost |
Fair value |
Unrealized
gain and
loss |
| Available-for-sale |
| U.S. Treasury securities |
25,113 |
25,845 |
2.9% |
| U.S. Government agencies and corporations: |
| Agency securities |
290,504 |
296,378 |
2.0% |
| Agency guaranteed mortgage-backed securities |
411,180 |
420,684 |
2.3% |
| Small Business Administration loan-backed securities |
834,883 |
812,530 |
-2.7% |
| Municipal securities |
251,029 |
252,833 |
0.7% |
| Asset-backed securities: |
| Trust preferred securities - banks and insurance |
2,173,757 |
1,536,164 |
-29.3% |
| Trust preferred securities - real estate investment
trusts |
76,745 |
34,580 |
-54.9% |
| Auction rate securities |
171,910 |
171,252 |
-0.4% |
| Other |
161,983 |
107,329 |
-33.7% |
| Mutual funds and stock |
246,300 |
246,300 |
0.0% |
| Total |
4,643,404 |
3,903,895 |
-15.9% |
| |
| Held-to-maturity |
| Municipal securities |
671,671 |
671,399 |
0.0% |
| Asset-backed securities: |
| Trust preferred securities - banks and insurance |
265,292 |
200,972 |
-24.2% |
| Other |
32,486 |
18,717 |
-42.4% |
| Other debt securities |
100 |
98 |
-2.0% |
| Total |
969,549 |
891,186 |
-8.1% |
Keep in mind that these losses are akin to the one's you and I would take
in an institutional margin account. Zions has a leverage ratio of 13x and investments
to common equity of 189%. One dollar of investment losses equates to much more
than one dollar of lost equity to this bank and its shareholders and investors.
If we look at the actual loan portfolio...
| Commercial lending: (in million) |
% of loan
type |
% of loan
portfolio |
| Commercial and industrial |
$10,588 |
53% |
25.5% |
| Leasing |
423 |
2% |
1.0% |
| Owner occupied |
8,782 |
44% |
21.1% |
| Total commercial lending |
19,793 |
100% |
47.7% |
| Commercial real estate: |
|
|
|
| Construction and land development |
6,848 |
50% |
16.5% |
| Term |
6,795 |
50% |
16.4% |
| Total commercial real estate |
13,643 |
100% |
32.9% |
| Consumer: |
|
|
|
| Home equity credit line |
2,086 |
29% |
5.0% |
| 1-4 family residential |
3,781 |
53% |
9.1% |
| Construction and other consumer real estate |
599 |
8% |
1.4% |
| Bankcard and other revolving plans |
344 |
5% |
0.8% |
| Other |
342 |
5% |
0.8% |
| Total consumer |
7,152 |
100% |
17.2% |
| Foreign loans |
67 |
0% |
0.2% |
| FDIC-supported assets |
875 |
2% |
2.1% |
| Total loans |
$41,530 |
100% |
100.0% |
A full 1/3 is CRE, with half of that being construction. For those who don't
know what that means... See "Who
are ya gonna believe, the pundits or your lying eyes?" and "Who
are you going to believe, the pundits or your lying eyes, part 2".
Another 17% is consumer with HELOCS (basically unsecured variable debt), residential
1-4 family and construction loans. All told this is 4x their tangible equity,
and this is some of the worse lending categories to be in right now. I will
expound on other banks, including the extreme risk that JPM and Goldman pose
to the system in my next post (or two). In the meantime, here is plenty of
related proprietary research and opinion on the banking farce and fake stress
test material for any who are interested.
1. Welcome
to the Big Bank Bamboozle!
(Reggie Middleton's Boom Bust Blog/MyBlog)
I have produced a downloadable PDF which clearly shows exactly how far off
the banks and SCAP bank stress tests are from the delinquency and foreclosure
information that the Federal government distr
Tuesday, 12 May 2009
2. The
Real Stress Test Results
(Reggie Middleton's Boom Bust Blog/MyBlog)
...as other private sources. A very big difference from what was proffered
through the media: PNC SCAP Results recast using FDIC and NY Fed data - Retail
2009-05-15 07:30:25 395.18 Kb P...
Friday, 15 May 2009
3. America,
You have been outright lied to! Bamboozled! Swindled! Hoodwinked! The Worst
Case Scenario
(Reggie Middleton's Boom Bust Blog/MyBlog)
...ntly stating that banks are well capitalized! The table below presents a
comparison of the Fed's SCAP (stress test) assumption for cumulative 2 year
loss rate and likely two year cumulative e...
Monday, 11 May 2009
9. The
Re-Release of the Open Source Mortgage Default Model
(Reggie Middleton's Boom Bust Blog/MyBlog)
... errors from a reader, along with suggestions on how he felt the model could
be improved. I checked the SCAP Loss Assumptions file that he sent and although
there is a difference of approach followed ...
Monday, 18 May 2009
11. Green
Shoots are Being Fertilized by Brown Turds in the Mortgage Markets
(Reggie Middleton's Boom Bust Blog/MyBlog)
...ings are you referring to?] § WFC Investment No... § WFC Investment
No... § PNC SCAP Results ... § PNC SCAP Results ... § BoomBustBlog.com'... § Small
r...
Friday, 10 July 2009
12. Beware
of Bank Earnings Propaganda - They are still in BIG trouble!
(Reggie Middleton's Boom Bust Blog/MyBlog)
... you referring to? then take a look at the hard data released by the FDIC
and the NY Fed: Revised SCAP Assumptions Public Open Source Version 1.1 2009-05-18
15:15:47 1.21 Mb) as well as an expla...
Monday, 06 July 2009
13. Banker
Busted?
(Reggie Middleton's Boom Bust Blog/MyBlog)
... data in my recent posts if you doubt this: BoomBustBlog.com's Realistic
Recast of SCAP 2009-05-12 14:52:09 My comments on the NYC condo market which
seems to have wrinkled a ...
Friday, 05 June 2009
15. Fact,
Fiction, Farce and Lies! What happened to the Bank Bears?
(Reggie Middleton's Boom Bust Blog/MyBlog)
...ears, Wells Fargo's capital would fall short by US$34.3 billion and not
US$13.7 billion as shown by the SCAP result (see America, You have been outright
lied to! Bamboozled! Swindled! Hoodwinked! The ...
Thursday, 13 August 2009
16. PNC
plus CRE = Doo Doo hitting the Fan
(Reggie Middleton's Boom Bust Blog/MyBlog)
...d earnings are you referring to?] § WFC Investment No... § WFC
Investment No... § PNC SCAP Results ... § PNC SCAP Results ... § BoomBustBlog.com'... § Small
ret...
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
17. Wells
Fargo reports in a few hours and I wonder how forthcoming they will be with
their credit losse
(Reggie Middleton's Boom Bust Blog/MyBlog)
...d on our assumptions on the bank's loan losses (professional subscribers,
please refer to the "SCAP" in the WFC forensic analysis - See WFC Investment
Note 22 May 09 - Pro), even under t...
Wednesday, 22 July 2009
18. The
difference between a professional investor and a professional reporter is...
(Reggie Middleton's Boom Bust Blog/MyBlog)
... have made executives at financial firms with large trading and investment-banking
operations eager to escape TARP. Willingness, or inability to do anything about
it due to their current situation? ...
Thursday, 09 July 2009
19. The
two tailed banking crisis
(Reggie Middleton's Boom Bust Blog/MyBlog)
... BoomBustBlog research: § WFC Investment No... § WFC Investment
No... § PNC SCAP Results ... § PNC SCAP Results ... § BoomBustBlog.com'... § Small
r...
Sunday, 28 June 2009
20. Reggie
Middleton's Goldman Sach's Stress Test: Breaking Ranks with the Crowd Once
Again!
(Reggie Middleton's Boom Bust Blog/MyBlog)
...grounded measure of risk adjusted return) of 14.8% for GS among its peer
group. Just so this doesn't escape anybody, GS has the lowest risk adjusted
return on the Street. Simply analyzing earnings...
Monday, 13 April 2009
|
Reggie
Middleton
Reggie Middleton, LLC
Perpetual Interests, LLCTM
http://boombustblog.com/
Who am I?
Well, I fancy myself the personification of the free thinking
maverick, the ultimate non-conformist as it applies to investment and analysis.
I am definitively outside the box - not your typical or stereotypical Wall
Street investor. I work out of my home, not a Manhattan office. I build my
own technology and perform my own research - in lieu of buying it or following
the crowd. I create and follow my own macro strategies and am by definition,
a contrarian to the nth degree.
Since I use my research as a tool for my own investing
to actually put food on my table, I can stand behind it as doing what it is
supposed too - educate, illustrate and elucidate. I do not sell advice, I am
not a reporter hence do not sell stories, and I do not sell research. I am
an entrepreneur who exists just outside of mainstream corporate America and
Wall Street. This allows me freedom to do things that many can not. For instance,
I pride myself on developing some of the highest quality research available,
regardless of price. No conflicts of interest, no corporate politics, no special
favors. Just the hard truth as I have found it - and believe me, my team and
I do find it! I welcome any and all to peruse my blog, use my custom hacked
collaborative social tools, read the articles, download the files, and make
a critical comparison of the opinion referencing the situation at hand and
the time stamp on the blog post to the reality both at the time of the post
and the present. Hopefully, you will be as impressed with the Boom Bust as
I am and our constituency.
I pay for significant information and data, and am well
aware of the value of quality research. I find most currently available research
lacking, in both quality and quantity. The reason why I had to create my own
research staff was due to my dissatisfaction with what was currently available
- to both individuals and institutions.
So here I am, creating my own research for my own investment
activity. What really sets my actions apart is that I offer much of what I
produce to the public without charge - free to distribute and redistribute,
as long as it is left unaltered and full attribution is given to the author
and owner. Why would I do such a thing when others easily charge 5 and 6 digits
annually for what some may consider a lesser product? It is akin to open
source analysis! My ideas and implementations are actually improved and
fine tuned when bounced off of the collective intellect of the many, in lieu
of that of the few - no matter how smart those few may believe themselves to
be.
Very recently, I have started charging for the forensics
portion of my work, which has freed up the resources to develop the site to
deliver even more research for free, particularly on the global macro and opinion
front. This move has allowed me to serve an more diverse constituency, which
now includes the institutional consumer (ie., investment turned consumer banks,
hedge funds, pensions, etc,) as well as the newbie individual investor who
is just getting started - basically the two polar opposites of the investing
spectrum. I am proud to announce major banks as paying clients, and brand new
investors who take my book recommendations and opinions on true wealth and
success to heart.
So, this is how I use my background and knowledge in new
media, distributed computing, risk management, insurance, financial engineering,
real estate, corporate valuation and financial analysis to pursue, analyze
and capitalize on global macroeconomic opportunities. I have included a more
in depth bio at the bottom of the page for those who really, really need to
know more about me.
Visit his blog Boom
Bust Blog.
Copyright © 2007-2009 Reggie Middleton
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