(07-04-2023, 07:21 AM)winflop Wrote: (07-03-2023, 07:42 AM)BigJohn043 Wrote: (07-03-2023, 06:58 AM)winflop Wrote: (07-02-2023, 10:23 AM)French Rage Wrote: It's only a loss if they sell now. Unlike smaller banks, BAC should (in theory) have diverse enough of a deposit base and overall business that they don't need to be selling right now.
That is not correct. All investments need to be adjusted to current market values on the balance sheet ("marked to market"), and federal regulators look at the market value of assets when assessing systemic risk. Any devaluation of this magnitude will materially impact their balance sheet and their systemic risk of failure
Banks do not have to mark assets they plan to hold to market. This was one of the changes coming out of the GFC. It is true that regulators will look at market values.
FWIW, BofA is not in any kind of real trouble due to its balance sheet. For that matter, SVB wasn't either. Without the deposit run SVB would have easily been able to manage its way through the increase in interest rates.
ALL companies must mark their assets to market on their balance sheet. See FASB rule 157. Frequency is at least once per year at the end of the fiscal year, but many companies do it more frequently especially publicly-traded ones who often do it quarterly as part of their reporting requirements.
I believe that banks hold bonds in a "mixed meaurement model" consisting of two accounts:
(1) AFS or "Available For Sale". These are bonds that are available to be sold and must be valued at Mark-to-Market, per FASB 157.
(2) HTM or "Held to Maturity" (sometimes referred to as "
Hide to Maturity"). These bonds, not available for sale, are held to maturity and are amortized instruments. The loss goes unrealized until the maturity date.
I think that dates from FASB decisions made in 2010. I used to work with Bob Herz at PwC. He was a partner at PwC, who became FASB's chair and was an absolute champion for market value. He resigned when FASB -- under political pressure -- retreated from Herz's proposal to require all financial instruments to be valued at market value on the balance sheet.
SVB had $91.3 billion in HTM financial instruments (43.1% of the balance sheet). Their fair value was only $76.2 billion -- $15.1 billion less than their carrying value. Had they marked to market, so to speak, it would have reduced the bank's equity to $1.2 billion (assuming no tax treatment). Even if SVB could have recouped a tax benefit, it would have still reduced book equity by $11.9 billion.
These links explain it better than I can. The first link lists the unrealized losses on a per-share basis for the large banks, including Citibank (16.7% of tangible book value), JP Morgan (17.1% of TBV), Wells Fargo (33.4%), and Bank of America (
56.7% -- yikes)
Q1 Update For List Of Banks That Still Have Massive Unrealized Securities Losses | Seeking Alpha
The SVB Collapse: FASB Should Eliminate “Hide-‘Til-Maturity” Accounting | CFA Institute Market Integrity Insights