U.S. Banks · Unrealized Gains (Losses) on Available-for-Sale Securities

## What this measures

The gap between the fair value and the amortized cost of the available-for-sale (AFS) securities held by every FDIC-insured bank and savings institution, in billions of dollars, at the end of each quarter. A negative number is an unrealized loss.

## Why it matters

Banks hold Treasuries, agency mortgage-backed securities and municipal bonds. When interest rates rise, the market value of those bonds falls. AFS losses already reduce a bank's reported equity (through accumulated other comprehensive income), and they become real losses if the bank has to sell, as Silicon Valley Bank did in 2023.

## How to read it

Read it against the level of long-term interest rates: losses deepen when yields rise and shrink as bonds mature or yields fall. It is the same measure as the FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile's chart of unrealized gains (losses) on investment securities.

## What it does not say

It covers securities only, not loans, whose value also falls when rates rise. It is an industry total: a few large banks hold most of it, and a bank that never sells never realises the loss.

## Source

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, BankFind Suite financial data (Call Reports): the sum over all institutions of SCAF (AFS fair value) minus SCAA (AFS amortized cost). Public domain. From 2012 Q1, when savings institutions moved onto the Call Report; earlier BankFind sums mix two reporting forms and are not comparable. Palanor re-reads every quarter weekly, because banks amend recent reports.