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Banks Buy $38 Bln in Agency MBS in 4Q10

The National Information Center has just released 4Q10 consolidated financial statements for bank holding companies.

The data are not as comprehensive as the Quarterly Banking Profile that also covers savings institutions, Barclays Capital analysts said in a report released today. However, analysts said that the information provides a good initial estimate of changes in bank assets and liabilities. The Quarterly Banking Profile will soon be released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

 

Considering that the biggest banks have been the main MBS buyers, analysts looked at the data for the top 50 bank holding companies and gave their general impressions.

They think that banks will remain a "leading force" in supporting the agency mortgage basis going into 2011. The most recent data showed, analysts noted, that domestic banks were quite active in 2H10. They think this trend will continue as valuations stay attractive while other types of lending remain difficult.

After having added close to $48.5 billion of agency MBS in 3Q10, the top 50 bank holding companies added another $38.4 billion worth over 4Q10, Barclays analysts reported. These were mostly focused on FNMA/FHLMC Gold passthroughs and agency CMOs. Banks generally lessened their GNMA passthrough holdings, limiting them only to negative $1.2 billion in 4Q10.

U.S. Treasury holdings saw a slight dip of about $2 billion in 4Q10, even though the largest bank holding firms were much bigger net sellers. Agency debt positions also came off by about $12 billion. 

On the loan front, one-to-four family residential lending rose by approximately $27.8 billion across the top banks, yet this was heavily skewed by one of the largest banks in the country. There was also noticeable growth of C&I loans of an added $17 billion, analysts said.

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