(Toronto) Funding levels at Canada’s big six banks are stable, ratings agency DBRS Morningstar said Monday, even though they have accumulated a loss in market value of about $57 billion over the past two weeks.
In a report released Monday, analyst Carl De Souza argued that the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank were idiosyncratic and unrepresentative of the Canadian banking industry.
Even though the big six banks have lost about 9.2% of their market value, they have diversified and stable funding and generally have lower exposure to fixed income securities which contributed to the fall of Silicon Valley Bank , said De Souza.
Canadian banks also have unrealized losses on long-term bond investments like Silicon Valley Bank, but the analyst pointed out that those losses weren’t as large and that banks shouldn’t be forced to shy away from them. divest because of their more resilient deposit bases.
De Souza said Canadian banks should be able to navigate the current market turmoil, but DBRS continues to closely monitor liquidity positions.
However, he added that the volatility would likely lead to higher funding costs, which could hurt profitability.
