U.S. banks cautiously optimistic about loan growth in 2019 - brokerage

Territorial Bancorp

04/02/2019 12:42

** Brokerage Raymond James says 51 pct of the U.S. banks
that have reported thus far have beaten consensus due to loan
growth acceleration, which helped margins expand
    ** Says management commentary about loan growth and margin
in 2019 reflects "cautious optimism", although bias to consensus
is flat to down
    ** So far, median loan growth sits at 1.9 pct, up from 1.4
pct median in Q3, but below 2.2 pct in Q4 last year
    ** From a margin standpoint, loan yields are rising more
than deposit costs, says Raymond James; to date, margins are up
2 basis points at the median, from Q3, when the opposite was
true
    ** Brokerage Wedbush says expect NIM to increase 4 bp in
2019; banks are assuming no rate hikes in 2019, which should
lead to margin being up on a year-over-year basis

 (Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru)
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