Loading ...The debacle revealed that Wall Street mega banks were up to their old games again – secretly loaning out their balance sheets to hedge funds while simultaneously denying the public and regulators the ability to see the massive levels of concentrated risk. (See Archegos: Wall Street Was Effectively Giving 85 Percent Margin Loans on Concentrated Stock Positions – Thwarting the Fed’s Reg T and Its Own Margin Rules.)
According to the 13F filings that five of the largest Wall Street banks made with the SEC for the quarter ending December 31, 2020, they hold a combined $2.66 trillion in stock – either for themselves, their customers, or highly-leveraged hedge funds like Archegos. The breakdown is as follows:
Bank of America: $776.2 Billion
JPMorgan Chase: $680.6 Billion
Morgan Stanley: $647.47 Billion
Goldman Sachs: $388.6 Billion
Citigroup: $169.39 Billion
Each of these financial institutions also own federally-insured banks. JPMorgan Chase is the largest federally-insured depository bank in the United States. In addition to its common stock holdings, the federal regulator of national banks, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), reports that as of December 31, 2020 JPMorgan Chase is also sitting on $2.65 trillion in stock derivatives. As we reported in early April: