On paper, America's regional banks look healthy. Underneath the surface, there's a different story.
Underlying commercial real estate exposure, non-performing loans, and delinquencies have risen significantly.
Regulators flag banks for scrutiny if they're holding more than $3 in commercial real estate loans for every $1 of their own capital. Today, 53% of regional banks are past that line.
After the 2008 financial crisis, roughly 1 in 6 banks past that line failed.
In this video, I'll break down: • How $3.1 trillion in commercial real estate loans ended up inside the U.S. banking system. • Why smaller and regional banks hold about two-thirds of all commercial real estate loans sitting on U.S. bank balance sheets. • How regulators measure commercial real estate risk, and why a loan can still count as performing after the building behind it loses value. • What the strategy the New York Fed calls "extend-and-pretend" actually is. • How extending a loan keeps it out of the delinquency numbers.
All illustrations, visuals, and animations in this video are original and hand-drawn by a freelance artist.
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