Commercial Banks
Industry Profile Report
Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters
Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.
Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.
Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.
Industry Profile Excerpts
Industry Overview
The 5,001 commercial banks in the US earn money by lending money at higher interest rates than the interest they pay to depositors. They may also earn money from fees and interest on credit card services, returns on investments in securities, fees for investment services, fees for treasury management services, and other account fees.
Burden of Regulatory Compliance Costs
The banking industry is highly regulated and regulations increased significantly following the financial crisis of 2008.
Fintech Competition Forces Innovation
Banks are seeing new competition from fintech start-ups, which have received tens of billions of dollars in venture capital funding over the past five years.
Industry size & Structure
The average commercial bank has 276 employees and generates $107 million in annual revenue.
- There are 5,001 FDIC-insured commercial banks in the US. FDIC-insured banks have over 1.3 million employees, $500 billion in annual revenue and almost $22 trillion in assets.
- There are about 4,560 FDIC-insured community banks that serve local markets and typically have less than $1 billion in assets. These community banks have over 392,700 employees and $2.5 trillion in assets.
- There are 776 FDIC-insured commercial banks with $1 billion to $10 billion in assets.
- There are 138 FDIC-insured commercial banks with $10 billion to $250 billion in assets.
- There are 13 FDIC-insured commercial banks with over $250 billion in assets. These banks are defined as systemically important financial institutions (SIFI) under the revisions to the Dodd-Frank Act and are subject to more stringent regulation.
- The largest US commercial banks by assets are JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, US Bancorp, TD Group US Holdings, and PNC Financial Services Group.
Industry Forecast
Commercial Banks Industry Growth
Recent Developments
Mar 27, 2023 - Some Banks Raise Savings Account, CD Interest Rates As Money Moves Around The Industry
- Some banks are increasing their savings account and CD interest rates to incentivize customers to stay put or to attract new money, according to analysts including Ken Tumin, founder of DepositAccounts.com, which tracks bank savings and CD rates. Online banks in particular have increased deposit rates because it’s easier for their customers to move money to competitors, Tumin says. Some banks may simply be trying to snare a share of the deposits ricocheting through the banking system rather than stem the loss of funds, one analyst counters. “I think banks are being opportunistic and seeing this….as a good opportunity to capture a customer relationship,” says Garry Zimmerman, founder of MaxMyInterest.com, a platform that lets consumers move money among banks that pay the highest rates.
- Deposits at small banks, defined as all but the biggest 25 commercial banks, decreased $119 billion to $5.46 trillion in the week ended March 15, according to the Federal Reserve. That was more than twice the previous record drop and the biggest decrease as a percent of overall deposits since the week ended March 16, 2007. Borrowings at small banks increased $253 billion to a record $669.6 billion. Deposits at large banks increased $67 billion in the week to $10.74 trillion. Small banks had $97 billion more in cash on hand at the end of the week, suggesting that some of the borrowing was to build war chests as a precautionary measure in case depositors asked to redeem their money, according to Capital Economics' analyst Paul Ashworth. Total US bank deposits have been decreasing after sharply increasing in 2020 and early 2021 following large pandemic aid disbursements.
- Top management of the consumer and business banking unit at JPMorgan, the nation's largest bank, told branch employees that "We should refrain from soliciting client business from an institution in stress," according to Reuters news service. Top executives at Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo are reported to have given similar guidance. Citigroup officials sent a memo reminding bankers that, in discussions with prospective customers, they should not discuss the standing and condition of other firms, according to Reuters. Billions of dollars in deposits have been moved from small and mid-sized banks to the largest US banks, which are required by regulators to hold more capital to withstand adverse conditions and are considered by many people as too big to be allowed to fail.
- JPMorgan Chase analysts estimate that the "most vulnerable" US banks are likely to have seen about $1 trillion in withdrawals since 2022, with half of the outflows occurring in March 2023 following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Recent bank closures amplified worries among customers who rushed to move their money to bigger banks that were perceived to be safer and hold a greater share of insured deposits, according to the analysts. Nearly $7 trillion of the $17 trillion of total US bank deposits are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the analysts wrote. Half of the $1 trillion in deposits that were pulled out of the most vulnerable US banks went to government money market funds, while the other half landed at larger US banks, the analysts added.
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