Loan:Deposit Ratio Illustration

Loan:Deposit Ratio Illustration

Tim Skeet

35 years: Debt capital markets

Tim considers the ratios of banks in different jurisdictions and provides possible explanations as to why these ratios vary so greatly.

Tim considers the ratios of banks in different jurisdictions and provides possible explanations as to why these ratios vary so greatly.

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Loan:Deposit Ratio Illustration

6 mins 30 secs

Key learning objectives:

  • Learn about the banks of different countries

  • Understand what is affecting the bank's loan:deposit ratio

Overview:

Comparing the loan:deposit ratio to the banks of different countries can paint a picture of the financial system backing those banks and how they handle assets and liabilities.

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Summary
Loan:Deposit Ratio Walk-through
Let’s compare the loan:deposit ratios of three of the biggest banks in the US, versus three of the biggest banks operating in the UK today. Banks in the UK have consistently higher loan:deposit ratios than US banks. 

 | United States  | United Kingdom
 | JPM  | 64%  | Lloyds  | 108%
 | BoA  | 72%  | Barclays UK  | 95%
 | Wells Fargo  | 74%  | RBS  | 89%The US banks originate retail mortgages through their branch networks, but once those mortgages have been agreed the banks have been able to sell many of these mortgages to the state-backed US mortgage Agencies. This means their asset bases are artificially smaller, because they don’t keep hold of all of their customer mortgages. UK banks, on the other hand, have no access to such mortgage Agencies and therefore keep their mortgages on their balance sheets, recording them as assets. Now let’s look at the loan:deposit ratios of the biggest banks in Japan and Sweden. The Japanese economy has been shrinking, there are negative policy rates and the existence of the “lost decade” suppresses loan growth. This holds down the asset side of these banks’ balance sheets and pushes a Japanese bank’s loan:deposit ratio lower. Now consider that Japan is still an exceptionally wealthy country and this results in large deposits. This large base of customer deposits also acts to push the loan:deposit ratio of the big banks lower. 
 | Japan  | Sweden
 | SMBC  | 57%  | Swedbank  | 167%
 | MUFG  | 61%  | Nordea  | 179%
 | Mizuho  | 64%  | Handelsbanken  | 143%At first glance, the loan:deposit ratios of Swedish banks are through the roof. The answer lies on the liability side of the balance sheet, and how Swedish banks raise liabilities. Swedish consumers don’t tend to open savings accounts with their banks, instead their habit is to place their savings in mutual funds. These funds then invest their customers’ cash in the wholesale debt of the domestic banks, usually in the form of covered bonds. These are therefore classed as wholesale borrowing, and therefore inflate the liability component of the loan:deposit equation.

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Tim Skeet

Tim Skeet

Banker with more than 35 years experience in the financial markets. Tim has been an ICMA board member and an ECBC steering committee member. Tim is a Freeman of the City of London.

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