December 9, 2024 | Premium Service | Last week, The Institutional Risk Analyst had the opportunity to speak with the management of Chain Bridge Bancorp (CBNA), which is the first US bank to go public in three years. Founded in 2007 by former U.S. Senator Peter G. Fitzgerald, CBNA operates a banking and trust business, and of note provides high touch deposit services to political campaigns and corporate PACs.
One of the reasons we like CBNA and Peter Fitzgerald is that they understand that funding comes before the asset. The prudent approach to liquidity and risk management at CBNA has resulted in strong financial returns and steady accretion in book value per share. Equity returns in the first quarter of public ownership are in the high 20s and asset returns are over 1.7% on average over the last twelve months (LTM).
Peter’s idea of an the perfect loan-to-deposit ratio is about 30%, one reason why his customers give CBNA their trust and their deposits. As you can see searching on the Federal Election Commission website, CBNA tends to serve clients from the center right of the political spectrum, while union-controlled Amalgamated Financial Corp. (AMAL) tends to serve candidates on the left of the political spectrum.
Below we look at the top ten US banks in the WGA Bank Top Index and ponder how the credit markets are likely to finish 2024. As we told Sarah Wheeler from Housing Wire in our discussion last week about GSE release, the occasion of rating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as private issuers may prompt Moody’s to first finally downgrade the US from "AAA" to “Aa1.”
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WGA Top Ten Banks