IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fip/fedker/96081.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Implications of Unrealized Losses for Banks

Author

Abstract

nterest rates have risen across the yield curve since the Federal Open Market Committee began tightening monetary policy in March 2022. After amassing securities during the pandemic, commercial banks saw rising interest rates erode the value of their securities portfolios by nearly $600 billion, or about 30 percent of their capital holdings. In some cases, declines in valuation of securities holdings in response to interest rate changes—known as “unrealized losses”—can mechanically reduce key regulatory capital and liquidity ratios. Should banks need to sell the securities to generate income when their valuations are low, the realized losses could erode capital buffers and threaten the banks’ solvency. W. Blake Marsh and Brendan Laliberte investigate how recent interest rate changes and banks’ associated unrealized losses have affected bank decision-making. They find four channels through which unrealized losses have reduced bank liquidity and capital, potentially dampening loan growth. These channels highlight that unrealized losses can affect all types of banks irrespective of size, regulatory treatment, or funding access.

Suggested Citation

  • Brendan Laliberte & W. Blake Marsh, 2023. "The Implications of Unrealized Losses for Banks," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, vol. 0(no. 2), pages 1-20, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedker:96081
    DOI: 10.18651/ER/v108n2MarshLaliberte
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.kansascityfed.org/Economic%20Review/documents/9473/EconomicReviewV108N2MarshLaliberte.pdf
    File Function: Full Text
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.18651/ER/v108n2MarshLaliberte?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. De Marco, Filippo, 2019. "Bank Lending and the European Sovereign Debt Crisis," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(1), pages 155-182, February.
    2. Viral V Acharya & Sascha Steffen, 2020. "The Risk of Being a Fallen Angel and the Corporate Dash for Cash in the Midst of COVID," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(3), pages 430-471.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stine Louise von Rüden & Marti G Subrahmanyam & Dragon Yongjun Tang & Sarah Qian Wang, 2023. "Can Central Banks Boost Corporate Investment? Evidence from ECB Liquidity Injections," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(2), pages 402-442.
    2. Pancotto, Livia & ap Gwilym, Owain & Molyneux, Philip, 2023. "Deal! Market reactions to the agreement on the EU Covid-19 recovery fund," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    3. Paul Pelzl & María Teresa, 2023. "Capital Regulations and the Management of Credit Commitments during Crisis Times," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 27(5), pages 1781-1821.
    4. Djimoudjiel, Djekonbe & T. Rostand, Dany Dombu & MBATINA NODJI, NDILENGAR, 2024. "What lessons does the COVID-19 pandemic teach us about banking liquidity and information share in the CEMAC zone?," MPRA Paper 119666, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 17 Jan 2024.
    5. Huneeus, Federico & Kaboski, Joseph & Larrain, Mauricio & Schmukler, Sergio L. & Vera, Mario, 2022. "The Distribution of Crisis Credit: Effects on Firm Indebtedness and Aggregate Risk," CEPR Discussion Papers 17061, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Harry Cooperman & Darrell Duffie & Stephan Luck & Zachry Wang & Yilin (David) Yang, 2025. "Bank Funding Risk, Reference Rates, and Credit Supply," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 80(1), pages 5-56, February.
    7. António Afonso & José Alves & Sofia Monteiro, 2025. "Echoes of instability: how geopolitical risks shape government debt holdings," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 1-28, June.
    8. Perego, Erica, 2020. "Sovereign risk and asset market dynamics in the euro area," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    9. Mario Cerrato & Hormoz Ramian & Shengfeng Mei, 2022. "European firms, Panic Borrowing and Credit Lines Drawdowns: What did we learn from the COVID-19 shock? (updated version February 2023)," Working Papers 2022_12, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    10. Nguyen, Lan Thi Mai & Luu, Hiep Ngoc & Nguyen, Thao Thi Phuong, 2022. "The impact of interest rate policy on credit union lending during a crisis period," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    11. Frey, Rainer & Weth, Mark Andreas, 2019. "Banks' holdings of risky sovereign bonds in the absence of the nexus: Yield seeking with central bank funding or de-risking?," VfS Annual Conference 2019 (Leipzig): 30 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall - Democracy and Market Economy 203537, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    12. Suarez, Javier & Sánchez Serrano, Antonio, 2018. "Approaching non-performing loans from a macroprudential angle," Report of the Advisory Scientific Committee 7, European Systemic Risk Board.
    13. Paul Pelzl & María Teresa Valderrama, 2019. "Capital regulations and the management of credit commitments during crisis times," DNB Working Papers 661, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    14. Jana Majerova & Lubica Gajanova & Margareta Nadanyiova & Anita Kolnhofer Derecskei, 2021. "Intrinsic Motivation Sources as Pillars of Sustainable Internal Marketing Communication in Turbulent Post-Pandemic Times," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-17, August.
    15. John (Jianqiu) Bai & Erik Brynjolfsson & Wang Jin & Sebastian Steffen & Chi Wan, 2021. "Digital Resilience: How Work-From-Home Feasibility Affects Firm Performance," NBER Working Papers 28588, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Fabrizio Ferriani & Marcello Pericoli, 2024. "ESG risks and corporate viability: insights from default probability term structure analysis," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 892, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    17. Marsh, W. Blake & Sharma, Padma, 2024. "Loan guarantees in a crisis: An antidote to a credit crunch?," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    18. Kevin F. Kiernan & Vladimir Yankov & Filip Zikes, 2021. "Liquidity Provision and Co-insurance in Bank Syndicates," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2021-060, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    19. Berent Tomasz & Śniechowski Maciej, 2023. "Corporate sector cash holding – optimal levels, macro context, or external shocks?," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 59(4), pages 297-314, December.
    20. Mucahit Kochan & Cigdem Gonul Kochan, 2024. "Impact of US Trade with China on Shareholders’ Wealth: Insights from Shipment Data in the COVID-19 Era," Economies, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-13, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedker:96081. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Zach Kastens (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbkcus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.