Goldman Sachs cuts GDP forecast due to stress on small banks, that are key to U.S. financial system

Goldman Sachs on Wednesday lowered its 2023 financial progress forecast, citing a pullback in lending from small- and medium-sized banks amid turmoil within the broader monetary system.

The agency lowered its progress forecast by 0.three proportion factors to 1.2% underneath expectations that smaller banks will try to protect liquidity in case they should meet depositor withdrawals, resulting in a considerable tightening in financial institution lending requirements.

Tighter lending requirements might weigh on mixture demand, implying a drag on GDP progress already affected by tightening in current quarters, Goldman economists David Mericle and Manuel Abecasis wrote in a be aware to shoppers.

“Small and medium-sized banks play an essential position within the US financial system,” the analysts wrote. “Any lending impression is more likely to be concentrated in a subset of small and medium-sized banks.”

Banks with lower than $250 billion in belongings comprise about 50% of U.S. industrial and industrial lending, 60% of residential actual property lending, 80% of business actual property lending and 45% of client lending, in response to the agency. 

Whereas the 2 current financial institution failures — Silicon Valley Financial institution and Signature Financial institution — account for simply 1% of whole financial institution lending, Goldman famous that lending shares are 20% for banks with a excessive loan-to-deposit ratio and seven% for banks with a low share of FDIC-insured deposits.

Regulators had seized each of the banks earlier this week and ensured that depositors would regain full entry to their funds via the FDIC’s deposit insurance coverage fund. Many depositors have been uninsured because of the $250,000 cap on assured deposits. 

The analysts assume that small banks with a low share of FDIC-covered deposits will cut back new lending by 40% and that different small banks will cut back new lending by 15%, resulting in a 2.5% drag on whole financial institution lending.

The impact of tightening would have the identical impression on demand progress as would an rate of interest hike of 25 to 50 foundation factors, they mentioned.