US regional bank shares sink despite Fed calling banking system 'sound'
Share prices of several United States regional banks tanked in after-hours trading Wednesday, despite Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell calling the banking sector “sound” and “resilient" just hours before.
One such regional bank, PacWest Bancorp, fell a whopping 52.5% in after-hours trading after Bloomberg reported that the bank would explore strategic options on May 4. It has been seen by some as another bank to potentially fall amid a U.S. banking crisis.
The bank is reportedly considering a sale or capital raising, Bloomberg said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Meanwhile, Western Alliance Bancorp (22.4%), Metropolitan Bank (16.2%) and HomeStreet (7.8%) were among the other hardest-hit regional banks.
Metropolitan Bank once offered services to crypto firms but closed its digital asset vertical in January because the firm wasn’t content with how the cryptocurrency industry was developing.
Western Alliance Bancorp also integrated blockchain-based payment solutions for its client base from the firm’s blockchain and digital asset branch.
Crypto gaining momentum as US Regional Bank stocks tumble after hours:PacWest, $PACW: ⬇️60%Western Alliance, $WAL: ⬇️30%Metropolitan Bank, $MCB: ⬇️20%Valley National, $VLY: ⬇️15%HomeStreet, $HMST: ⬇️11%Zions Bank, $ZION: ⬇️10%KeyCorp, $KEY: ⬇️8%Seems like time to #HODL
Powell's attempt to quell concerns about the banking sector came as he announced that the Federal Reserve would hike interest rates another 25 base points:
Powell added they are "committed to learning the right lessons from this episode," and we’ll work to prevent events like these from happening again.”
First Republic Bank’s collapse was the second biggest bank failure of late, which first surfaced on April 26 when
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