US banks have increased holdings of “sliced and diced” securities to a record in the latest sign that financial institutions may be seeking to boost profits by investing in riskier, higher-yielding assets.
Growing portfolios of structured products have raised concerns that banks could be assuming more risk on their balance sheets to make up for low interest rates, a situation that would echo the pre-crisis environment in which banks created and purchased billions of dollars worth of securitised assets.
Banks’ holdings of structured products rose to almost $70bn in the three months to September, according to data released this week by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.