How Have Foreign Bank Stocks Performed Year-to-Date 

The equity markets in the have recovered strongly so far this year. The S&P 500 is up about 10% YTD. But not all sectors are performing well. For instance, tech stocks have had a great run but the banking sector is having one of the worst years since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008-2009. Among the banks, the regionals have been hit pretty hard with the KBW Nasdaq Regional Banking Index plunging by about 28% YTD. The regional bank ETF SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) for example is down even more with a decline of 33%. This ETF tries to track the return of the  S&P® Regional Banks Select Industry Index.

Many of the individual banks are down deep in the red. Below are the YTD returns of a few banks:

  • US Bancorp (USB): -32.55%
  • Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB): -23.10%
  • Glacier Bancorp, Inc (GBCI): -42.0%
  • Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (HBAN): -28.0%
  • KeyCorp (KEY): -44.0%

Have foreign stocks performed better or held up relatively well compared to the poor performance of US bank stocks?

The following table provides the answer. It shows the year-to-return of foreign banks trading on the US exchanges:

S.No.Bank NameTickerStock Proce as of May 19, 2023 closeYear-to-date Change (%)Country
1HSBCHSBC$38.2522.98%United Kingdom
2Grupo Financiero GaliciaGGAL$11.5319.22%Argentina
3Banco Santander ChileBSAC$18.8018.94%Chile
4Banco Bilbao Vizcaya ArgentariaBBVA$7.0416.81%Spain
5Banco SantanderSAN$3.4215.93%Spain
6Itau UnibancoITUB$5.4313.38%Brazil
7Banco BradescoBBD$3.1812.15%Brazil
8Banco Santander BrasilBSBR$6.0411.32%Brazil
9Banco BBVA Argentina S.A.BBAR$4.3010.51%Argentina
10Itau CorpbancaITCL$3.517.67%Chile
11Banco MacroBMA$17.317.61%Argentina
12UBS Group AGUBS$20.095.96%Switzerland
13Lloyds Banking GroupLYG$2.295.45%United Kingdom
14ICICI BankIBN$23.075.03%India
15Banco de ChileBCH$21.844.27%Chile
16Grupo Supervielle S.A.SUPV$2.254.17%Argentina
17Bank Of MontrealBMO$87.364.04%Canada
18NatWestNWG$6.684.02%United Kingdom
19Mizuho FinancialMFG$3.043.87%Japan
20ING Group N.V.ING$13.013.75%The Netherlands
21Bank Nova Scotia HalifaxBNS$49.263.34%Canada
22Canadian Imperial Bank of CommerceCM$41.572.59%Canada
23Barclays BankBCS$7.922.44%United Kingdom
24Sumitomo Mitsui FinancialSMFG$8.331.12%Japan
25Royal Bank Of CanadaRY$94.200.57%Canada
26Mitsubishi UFJ FinancialMUFG$6.87-0.45%Japan
27Woori Financial Group Inc.WF$26.93-0.94%Korea
28HDFC BankHDB$66.67-2.81%India
29KB Financial GroupKB$37.14-3.54%Korea
30Credicorp Ltd.BAP$132.75-3.89%Peru
31Toronto Dominion BankTD$60.92-5.04%Canada
32Shinhan FinancialSHG$26.18-5.48%Korea
33Intercorp Financial Services Inc.IFS$21.98-6.27%Peru
34Deutsche BankDB$10.58-7.99%Germany
35Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores S.A.AVAL$2.17-11.07%Colombia
36First BanCorp.FBP$11.35-11.74%Puerto Rico
37OFG BancorpOFG$24.23-12.43%Puerto Rico
38Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son LimitedNTB$25.14-16.70%Bermuda
39BancolombiaCIB$23.80-16.85%Colombia
40Credit SuisseCS$0.87-70.72%Switzerland

Some observations:

  • The best performing foreign bank YTS is HSBC (HSBC) and the worst performer is Credit Suisse (CS). With the acquisition by UBS, eventually CS will disappear.
  • The second worst foreign bank stock YTD is Bancolombia (CIB) of Colombia. At current prices the annual dividend yield is a juicy 10.44%.
  • Due to its high exposure to the US markets, TD is the only Canadian bank that is in the negative territory.
  • Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited (NTB) of Bermuda is not well known among investors and may be worth a look.
  • ING Group N.V. (ING) is a long way from its previous peak but has stabilized and continuing earnings improvements and buybacks should help drive the price higher in the future.

Note: The returns noted above are excluding dividends

Source: BNY Mellon & Google Finance

Disclosure: Long BCH, CIB, GBCI, ING, ITCL, ITUB, BBD, BBVA, SAN, BNS, BMO, RY, CM and TD

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