Category: Investments

Regional banks, Jefferies shares tank as concerns about sour loans grow on Wall Street

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/16/regional-banks-and-jefferies-shares-tank-as-concerns-grow-on-wall-street-about-sour-loans.html

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Excerpt:

Shares of regional banks and investment bank Jefferies tumbled on Thursday as fears mounted around some bad loans lurking on Wall Street.

Zions Bancorporation dropped more than 10% midday, as did Western Alliance Bancorp. The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) lost around 4%, with all but one member of the popular fund on track to end Thursday’s session in the red.

….

The worries about the health of the banking industry originated with the bankruptcies of companies related to the auto sector: First Brands and Tricolor Holdings.

Shares of Jefferies, which has exposure to First Brands, fell more than 9% on Thursday. The investment bank’s stock has lost around 23% in October, making it poised to record its worst month since the Covid pandemic took hold in March 2020.

Jefferies said that hedge funds it runs are owed $715 million from companies tied to First Brands, while UBS said that it has about $500 million in exposure.

“When you see one cockroach, there are probably more,” JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said on the company’s earnings conference call earlier this week in relation to First Brands and Tricolor Holdings fallout.

Author(s): Alex Harring, Sarah Min

Publication Date:16 Oct 2025

Publication Site: CNBC

U.S. Insurers Report a 1% Increase in Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities Holdings in 2024, Still 2% Below 2022 Peak

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://content.naic.org/sites/default/files/capital-markets-special-reports-cmbs-ye2024.pdf

Graphic:

Executive Summary:

  • The U.S. insurance industry’s exposure to agency and private-label commercial mortgage-backed
    securities (CMBS) totaled $287 billion at year-end 2024, a 1% year-over-year (YOY) increase.
  • Property/casualty (P/C) insurance companies were the primary driver of growth, with their agency
    CMBS exposure rising 22% to $36 billion.
  • Agency CMBS accounted for 28% of U.S. insurers’ total CMBS exposure at year-end 2024, reflecting
    a steady increase from 24% at year-end 2022.
  • The credit quality of the CMBS portfolio remained stable overall, with investments carrying an
    NAIC 1 designation or NAIC 2 designation totaling 97.6% of total exposure at year-end 2024.
  • Office property delinquency rates remain elevated at 9.6% as of July 2025, according to S&P Global
    Ratings (S&P Global) data.

Author(s): Michele Wong and Hankook Lee

Publication Date: 16 Oct 2025

Publication Site: NAIC, Capital Markets Special Report

Oregon Treasury Doesn’t Know, Doesn’t Care It’s Invested In Risky Crypto!

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://pensionwarriorsdwardsiedle.substack.com/p/oregon-treasury-doesnt-know-doesnt

Excerpt:

I note with great emphasis: “We do not possess thorough look through ability.”

That’s the first time I’ve ever heard those confusing words. Here’s a translation:

  1. State pension fiduciaries have failed to demand that external investment managers disclose to the pension on a timely basis all investments, including but not limited to crypto, in their funds’ portfolios.
  2. State pension fiduciaries have failed to disclose to Oregonians information they don’t possess regarding the pension’s riskiest investments.
  3. State pension fiduciaries cannot be monitoring the risks related to crypto investments they do not know they own.

Bad enough that the Oregon State Treasury is gambling $60 billion in high-cost, high-risk alternative funds. State officials don’t know—and apparently don’t even care—what’s in those funds.

Author(s): Edward Siedle

Publication Date: 10 Sept 2025

Publication Site: Pension Warriors, substack