Why Are So Many Regional Banks Getting Crushed Today?

To say that regional banks are having a rough start to the week would be an understatement. At 10 a.m. ET, shares of First Republic Bank (NYSE: FRC) were down by about 68% for the day -- and that's on top of last week's 33% decline.

Other regional institutions were down big as well. PacWest Bancorp (NASDAQ: PACW) was down by 51%, Western Alliance Bancorp (NYSE: WAL) plunged by 81%, and Zions Bancorp (NASDAQ: ZION) fell 34%. Even some of the larger regional banks were under tremendous pressure, with Truist Financial (NYSE: TFC) and Regions Financial (NYSE: RF) down by 18% and 14%, respectively. In all, the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (NYSEMKT: KRE) was down by 14%.

The short answer is that this is fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (NASDAQ: SIVB). But it may seem odd that these bank stock declines are coming after the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department said that deposits (even uninsured deposits) at all these institutions are 100% safe and created a new funding program to ensure banks have access to the liquidity they need.

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Source Fool.com