The US banking system is riskier than its peer group on most measures, according to a new report by Standard & Poor’s. Despite the Eurozone banking sector’s sovereign debt and capital woes, and the uneven effects of global regulatory changes, other G20 economies – except the UK – have bank systems that rank as less risky, according to the S&P “Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment: US,” published earlier this month.
S&P’s industry risk score of 4 for the US is based on its opinion that the country faces intermediate risk in its institutional framework, high risk in its competitive dynamics, and very low risk in system wide funding.
S&P recognizes that the US banking system has some unique strengths: “The US has a highly diversified and market-oriented economy, with an adaptable and resilient economic structure. Core retail deposits constitute a large share of system wide funding needs. The US benefits from the dollar’s standing as a key reserve currency, which helps compensate for the country’s external debt and leads to minimal foreign-currency funding of the banking system.”
However, despite the abatement of loan losses in recent quarters, S&P says that continued weakness in real estate poses “latent credit risks.” S&P also points out that “Large and active nonbank competitors should continue to undermine the ‘competitive dynamics,’ as we define them, of US banks.
With multinationals increasingly looking for new sources of funding closer to overseas areas of expansion, the S&P report provides another reason for putting more emphasis on local financing.