October 14, 2024 | Although less severe than initial forecasts, which predicted a stronger storm making landfall farther north, Milton still caused significant damage with powerful winds, storm surge, and heavy rainfall, as well as scores of deadly tornadoes and widespread power outages for millions across the state . . .
October 1, 2024 | Those affected by Hurricane Helene are in our thoughts.While Hurricane Helene’s economic damage has the potential to be large, insured claims should be more limited . . .
September 19, 2024 | Private credit (PC) has experienced material growth, filling a void created by stricter bank regulations post-GFC. Direct lending (DL), a subset of PC, provides loans to non-public small/medium-sized businesses, often private equity (PE) owned. The DL market is estimated to be worth well over $1 trillion . . .
July 16, 2024 | This month, Hurricane Beryl made initial landfall on Carriacou in the Grenadine Islands as a major Category 4 storm and caused significant damage across the Caribbean including Jamaica . . .
June 27, 2024 | All 31 large US banks that underwent the Federal Reserve’s onerous 2024 stress test remained above their minimum capital requirements . . .
June 17, 2024 | Snap Elections in France: In response to the disappointing Euro parliament results for his centrist coalition, President Macron dissolved the National Assembly and called for snap elections to take place on June 30 and July 7 . . .
April 22, 2024 | The US environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a National Primary Drinking Water Regulation for several per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which have been linked to adverse health effects including from cancer and reproductive and developmental disorders . . .
April 12, 2024 | On April 11th Fuzzy Panda Research released a note discussing reasons for its short position in Globe Life Inc. (GL), a major investment grade-rated public life insurer that offers life insurance and other protection products principally to middle-income households . . .
April 2, 2024 | In the early morning on March 26th, the Dali, a Singapore-owned and -flagged container ship reportedly lost power and crashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, leading to its collapse and the deaths of several workers who were on the bridge at the time . . .
March 27, 2024 | The European insurance sector has evolved under Solvency 2 (S2) regulation implemented in 2016. We expect well capitalized insurers to continue to replace legacy instruments with S2 eligible securities ahead of the end of the 10-year grandfathering period at year-end 2025 . . .
February 1, 2024 | New York Community Bancorp’s (NYCB) 4Q23 loss is not a material worry, in our opinion, as it is driven by the bank’s need to take actions to make its balance sheet more reflective of its new status as a Category IV (>$100 billion) bank . . .
October 10, 2023 | We believe there should be limited material impacts on our bank, insurance and nonfinancial investments, based on Spectrum’s disciplined selection of high-grade names in advanced economies . . .
October 9, 2023 | The European Central Bank (ECB) released its second economy-wide climate stress test (CST) in September, testing the resilience of companies, households and the financial system . . .
August 14, 2023 | Tragic wildfires in the state of Hawaii have caused significant loss of life. They have also affected thousands of properties, with the historic city of Lahaina on the island of Maui severely destroyed . . .
August 9, 2023 | Moody’s took various rating actions on 24 US regional banks and the three trust banks. The Italian Government surprised the market with a special one-time tax of 40% on banks’ net interest income on year-over-year growth . . .
August 7, 2023 | Insurers mainly invest in high-quality fixed income assets, bought-and-held to match the timing of obligations to policyholders. We are confident in the prudent risk management of our insurance names which have been tested through cycles . . .
August 2, 2023 | Fitch downgraded the United States of America a notch to AA+ Stable. This action is almost twelve years to the day after S&P downgraded the USA to AA+. Moody’s remains at Aaa Stable . . .
July 31, 2023 | The bank stress test results released on July 28, 2023 by the European Central Bank (ECB) and European Banking Authority (EBA) show that “the euro area banking sector is overall resilient to a severe economic downturn, as represented in the adverse scenario” . . .
July 28, 2023 | These proposed regulations will result in tighter risk controls and higher capital levels, which Spectrum believes will provide even stronger support for large US banks’ preferred stock . . .
July 13, 2023 | All major UK banks passed the Bank of England’s stress test, released on July 12, 2023. According to the Bank of England, this stress test indicated that “the major UK banks would be resilient to a severe stress scenario” . . .
June 29, 2023 | According to Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael S. Barr, "Today's results confirm that the banking system remains strong and resilient.” All 23 banks exceeded their minimum capital levels after being put through the ‘severely adverse scenario’ that envisions a deep global recession . . .
May 5, 2023 | Spectrum remains constructive on the regional bank space despite negative market sentiment. The prospect of further bank runs underscored by negative messaging and short selling ignores the industry’s positives, in our opinion . . .
May 1, 2023 | First Republic Bank (FRC) was placed into receivership this morning by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Under a highly competitive bidding process, the FDIC has agreed that JPMorgan Chase (JPM) will purchase and assume all deposits and nearly all assets of FRC . . .
April 10, 2023 | On Friday April 7, First Republic Bank (FRC) announced via an 8-K filing that it had decided to suspend dividends on all seven series of FRC’s noncumulative perpetual preferred stock . . .
March 23, 2023 | Despite the recent collapse of Credit Suisse (CS) and failures of several US regional banks, we expect the fallout to be manageable for the defensive insurance sector . . .
March 20, 2023 | The de facto failure of Credit Suisse, and full write-down of its CHF 15.8 billion of AT1 securities, without a similar write-down of Credit Suisse’s common stock – an upside-down seniority structure – has the market perplexed . . .
March 19, 2023 | The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA – the Swiss banking regulator) approved the merger of UBS and Credit Suisse, two of the global systemically important financial institutions (G-SIFIs) . . .
March 16, 2023 | First Republic Bank (FRC) is a Bay Area-based bank that focuses on HNW households and their businesses . . .
March 15, 2023 | Credit Suisse, the large wealth management-focused Swiss bank, has come under further pressure in recent days . . .
March 13, 2023 | Silicon Valley Bank - What Happened. Lessons Learned. Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and its parent SVB Financial Group (SIVB) were a top 20 banking group, and successful, long-term financial leaders focused on the ‘innovation economy,’ . . .
March 13, 2023 | New Fed Loan Facility & FDIC Full Deposit Insurance - Very Supportive for Banks’ Liquidity. In response to bank funding stress, on Sunday, March 12, the Federal Reserve created the “Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP) . . .
March 10, 2023 | Failure of Silicon Valley Bank - Not a Contagion Event. Silicon Valley Bank, the main operating subsidiary of SVB Financial Group (SIVB), a banking leader in the venture capital (VC) and technology sectors of the economy, has been closed by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation . . .
February 7, 2023 | Electric utilities are one of the leading sectors promoting the benefits of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives . . .
