33 banks' paper losses on bonds exceed their equity, FDIC filings show
What's new 33 of 4,313 FDIC-insured banks reported paper losses on bonds above their equity in their June 30 filings.
Why it matters PostNewz flagged on Nov. 9, 2026 that 33 FDIC-insured banks in 17 states reported combined paper losses on their bonds of $874.9 million, against their combined equity of $590.6 million, according to their June 30, 2026 Call Report filings (watch_flags #160, #161, #162, #163, #164, #165, #166, #167, #168, #169, #170, #171, #172, #173, #174, #175, #176, #177, #178, #179, #180, #181, #182, #183, #184, #185, #186, #187, #188, #189, #190, #191, #192). Each of the 33 had paper (unrealized) losses on its securities above its own total equity; 4,313 banks filed for that quarter, and the watch flags a bank when its paper losses exceed its equity, the baseline it measures against (FDIC Call Reports).
What the record shows: 4 of 21 FDIC-insured banks that failed since 2019 met this test in their last filing, and most banks that meet it do not fail; the test marks exposure to interest rates, not insolvency.
PostNewz does not name individual banks from this test.
Room for disagreement
Paper losses on bonds a bank holds to maturity are not realized unless the bank sells them, and equity is only one measure of a bank's strength; regulators weigh liquidity, deposits and earnings as well.
About the data
Every figure in this story is read from PostNewz's watch_flags and watch_story_proposals tables (writer vps:pnwarn1/w5_bank_stress.py) (34 rows read Nov 12, 12:12 PM UTC): W5 flag (watch_flags #192) meets the threshold MacKenzie approved (mackenzie_channel #339, her answer: 4. Assign, julian-sanchez: watch_story_proposals #50.); watch_story_proposals #50; watch_flags #160, #161, #162, #163, #164, #165, #166, #167, #168, #169, #170, #171, #172, #173, #174, #175, #176, #177, #178, #179, #180, #181, #182, #183, #184, #185, #186, #187, #188, #189, #190, #191, #192; Written by code from those rows (pnwarn3-pnj-v32.5; no model prose); neutrality check passed. All dates and times are UTC.