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Home > News & Events > Press Releases

Joint Press Release
October 10, 2013

Credit risk in the Shared National Credit
portfolio unchanged
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Office of Comptroller of the Currency
For immediate release
Share

The credit quality of large loan commitments owned by U.S. banking
organizations, foreign banking organizations (FBOs), and nonbanks was
relatively unchanged in 2013 from the prior year, federal banking
agencies said Thursday.
The volume of criticized assets remained elevated at $302 billion, or 10
percent of total commitments, which was approximately twice the
percentage of pre-crisis levels. The stagnation in credit quality follows
three consecutive years of improvements. A criticized asset is rated
special mention, substandard, doubtful, or loss as defined by the
agencies' uniform loan classification standards. The Shared National
Credits (SNC) annual review was completed by the Federal Reserve
Board, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency.
Leveraged loans--transactions characterized by a borrower with a
degree of financial leverage that significantly exceeds industry norms-totaled $545 billion of the 2013 SNC portfolio and accounted for $227
billion, or 75 percent, of criticized SNC assets. Material weaknesses in
the underwriting of leveraged loans were observed, and 42 percent of

leveraged loans were criticized by the agencies.
The federal banking agencies issued updated leveraged lending
supervisory guidance on March 21, 2013. After declining during the
financial crisis, the volume of leveraged lending has since increased and
underwriting standards have deteriorated. The agencies expect
supervised firms to properly evaluate and monitor credit risks in their
leveraged loan commitments and ensure borrowers have sustainable
capital structures.
Refinancing risk continued to ease in 2013 with only 15 percent of SNCs
maturing over the next two years, compared with 23 percent for the
same time frame in the previous review. Borrowers continued to
refinance and extend loan maturities during the past year.
Other highlights:
Total SNC commitments increased by $219 billion to $3.01 trillion,
an 8 percent gain from the 2012 review. Total SNC loans
outstanding increased $199 billion to $1.36 trillion, an increase of
10 percent.
Criticized assets represented 10 percent of the SNC portfolio,
compared with 11 percent in 2012.
Classified assets, which are rated as substandard, doubtful, and
loss, represented 6 percent of the SNC portfolio, compared with 7
percent in 2012.
Credits rated special mention, which exhibit potential weakness
and could result in further deterioration if uncorrected, increased
from $99 billion to $115 billion, representing approximately 4
percent of the portfolio, a slight increase from 2012.
Adjusted for losses, nonaccrual loans declined from $82 billion to
$61 billion, a 26 percent reduction.
The distribution of credits across entities, (U.S. banking
organizations, FBOs, and nonbanks) remained relatively
unchanged. U.S. banking organizations owned 44 percent of total
SNC loan commitments, FBOs owned 36 percent, and nonbanks
owned 20 percent.
Nonbanks continued to own a larger share of classified (67
percent) and nonaccrual (72 percent) assets than their total share
of the SNC portfolio. Institutions insured by the FDIC owned 12
percent of classified assets and 7 percent of nonaccrual loans.
The SNC program was established in 1977 to provide an efficient and
consistent review and analysis of SNCs. A SNC is any loan or formal
loan commitment, and asset such as real estate, stocks, notes, bonds,
and debentures taken as debts previously contracted, extended to
borrowers by a federally supervised institution, its subsidiaries, and
affiliates that aggregates $20 million or more and is shared by three or
more unaffiliated supervised institutions. Many of these loan
commitments are also shared with FBOs and nonbanks, including
securitization pools, hedge funds, insurance companies, and pension
funds.
In conducting the 2013 SNC Review, the agencies reviewed $800 billion

of the $3.01 trillion credit commitments in the portfolio. The sample was
weighted toward noninvestment grade and criticized credits. The results
of the review are based on analyses prepared in the second quarter of
2013 using credit-related data provided by federally supervised
institutions as of December 31, 2012, and March 31, 2013.
Attachments
Shared National Credits Program 2013 Review (PDF)
Industry Mapping File

Media Contacts:
Federal Reserve
Board
FDIC
OCC

Eric Kollig
Greg
Hernandez
Stephanie
Collins

202-4522955
202-8986984
202-6496870

Last Update: October 10, 2013

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