Banks have been getting hit harder than Chris Rock at the Oscars (is this joke too old?)😜 Sure, times are tough and there’s a lot of uncertainty going around, but to see multiple big bank failures can be shocking! WTF is going on?!?!
Also, how are Washington’s big banks doing?
Here are Five Fast Facts on Washington State’s banks:
- 👍 Sound As A Pound…Probably - The four big banks (WaFed Bank, HomeStreet Bank, Umpqua Bank, and Banner Bank) seem to be doing pretty okay, at least as of March 2023. These days, we’ll take “pretty okay” as a place for our money!
- 📉 Some Concerns - It’s not all puppies and unicorns. According to recent reports, three of the four banks were lending less than normal over the last three months. That’s partly due to inflation and higher interest rates from the Fed. The fourth bank is in the middle of a merger and didn’t have complete data to report.
- 💰 Deposits Remain - Our banks have seen lower stock prices – frankly, what publicly traded company hasn’t?? – but people have generally left their money in place, which is a good sign. The small decline is tied to the increasing interest rates from a year ago, well before the big bank failures this spring. Oh good, it’s just the Fed that’s dragging things down now. Whew!
- 🆕 New Loans - Three of the four banks have also seen less lending for new major projects like construction and housing. Rising interest rates played a part here, too, as did normal seasonal fluctuations, so it’s not necessarily a disaster. At least not yet!
- 🎉 Existing Loans - The percentage of nonperforming loans – loans in default – is up a bit at three of the four banks, ranging from around 0.14% to 0.21%. The good news is that this is far lower than the national average of 0.73%. Suck it, everyone else!
🔥Bottom line: So what does all this mean to you? Well, it seems like our banks are pretty solid right now, and in little danger of the kind of run that took down SVB. Banks that stick to best practices tend to weather these economic storms pretty well, and it seems like that’s what’s happening. In the end, that means our Paychecks are safe in these banks, and that gives us all a warm fuzzy!
What do you think about Washington’s banks?
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