PrefBlog

The Fed is pushing on a string:

The gap between U.S. bank deposits and loans is growing at the fastest pace in two years, providing lenders with more funds to buy bonds and temper the biggest sell-off in Treasuries since 2010.

As deposits increased 3.3 percent to $8.88 trillion in the two months ended July 31, business lending rose 0.7 percent to $7.11 trillion, Federal Reserve data show. The record gap of $1.77 trillion has expanded 15 percent since May, the biggest similar-period gain since July, 2010. Banks have already bought $136.4 billion in Treasury and government agency debt this year, more than double the $62.6 billion in all of 2011, pushing their holdings to an all-time high of $1.84 trillion.
…
“Every bank is looking for a way to increase their yield,” said Mike Pearce, president of Bank of The West in Grapevine, Texas, whose company has been purchasing government securities after deposits grew faster than loans in 2010 and 2011. Instead of earning the Federal Funds rate of zero to 0.25 percent on the deposits, its bond holdings are yielding about 3.25 percent, he said.

The danger here is that when the economy starts picking up and people actually start competing with the Treasury for loans, yields will skyrocket. Who remembers 1994?

It was a mixed day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualPremiums down 9bp, FixedResets off 7bp and DeemedRetractibles gaining 3bp. Volatility was minimal. Volume continued its recent pattern, with pockets of institutional activity and total lack of interest from retail.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 21st, 2012 at 1:24 am and is filed under Market Action. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.