Going by what's in the financial media lately, I'd say the markets are more worried about zero/negative yields and their impact on bank profits than Brexit. It seems over the last couple of weeks there's no shortage of analysts predicting banking sector profits to be under pressure in a zero interest rate environment. And I'm no expert but I feel like their pessimism is at least somewhat justified. Zero interest rates has not worked out well in the case of Europe and Japan. Yet policymakers globally seem hell bent on taking rates in that direction.
Also it feels to me like a big attraction of owning banks - to profit from their ability to access cheap, low cost deposit funding - disappears in a zero interest rate environment. After all, if zero is the starting point for interest rates for everyone, then boasting that you have lots of retail deposits earning low/no interest sitting in transaction/savings accounts from which you can fund higher priced loans seem to count for little.
No shortage of doom and gloom for British banks lately I feel. But perhaps that makes it the best time to buy? Hard to say with so many variables for this one... I'll continue to watch from the sidelines I think.
CYB Price at posting:
$2.55 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Not Held
