US banks are piling money onto their steadiness sheets whereas displaying a weak urge for food for lending, in line with the monetary knowledge and analytics agency S&P International.
The agency says that within the first quarter of 2025, banks elevated their holdings of money and equivalents by $88.66 billion.
JPMorgan Chase and Citibank, the primary and third-largest US lenders by complete belongings, drove the majority of the rise, backed by robust deposit progress, significantly from non-US deposits.
“Within the first quarter, banks parked extra money in money and equivalents whereas prospects took a wait-and-see method on the influence of tariffs. The median change in money and equivalents soared to 11.0%, up from 0.3% within the fourth quarter of 2024.”
In the meantime, mortgage progress through the first quarter rose by lower than one % level.
Particularly, banks reduce on bank card, nonresidential building, farm and auto loans, setting a development that’s prone to proceed.
“Analysts have been slicing internet mortgage progress estimates for many of the largest US public banks and aren’t projecting a major rise for the rest of the yr.”