Key Drawbacks of the Banking Industry The DIY Investing Podcast

Mental Models discussed in this podcast: Commodity Leverage Availability Bias (re 2008 Financial Crisis) Please review and rate the podcast If you enjoyed this podcast and found it helpful, please consider leaving me a rating and review. Your feedback helps me to improve the podcast and grow the show's audience. 
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Show Outline The full show notes for this episode are available at https://www.diyinvesting.org/Episode83
Key Characteristics of the banking industry which make it unattractive for investors 2008 Financial Crisis I could probably end this episode with that statement alone. However, there is value in expanding on what bank investors can learn from the 2008 financial crisis. Specifically, how that event may be repeated or rhyme in the future and how to avoid owning a bank that may be affected. Risk Management is primary - which is heavily influenced by management A poor management team can quickly ruin a good bank. This is a problem for investors because it requires evaluating management and understanding their ability and focus on managing risk. This is harder to do than you may expect because nearly all bank managers are going to pay at least lip service to risk management. Buffett once talked about wanting to own a business that could be run by an idiot because eventually, an idiot would run it. Unfortunately, this does not often apply to banks. Why? It will be more clear as we discuss further issues. Banks operate with high leverage In many industries, high leverage can be seen as a sign of risky decision making. With banking, leverage is a feature. High leverage is not only present across the board in the banking industry but is required in order to earn an adequate return. I covered why in episode 79 when we discussed the banking business model. The more leverage a company uses the higher risk of blowing up or bankruptcy due to deteriorating loan performance. This is why management plans such a big role. It is easy to grow a bank by offering loans to people and companies that are not creditworthy. However, doing so sets up failure down the road. Leverage = Double-edged sword. Required for adequate returns, but the potential source of bankruptcy. 2008 was a prime example of how this could occur. Value Traps abound -> History of low returns, especially among small banks While high returning banks that are able to reinvest capital into growth offer great opportunities, there are many more banks that could be a value trap. Small community banks often trade below book value which can appeal to value investors. Yet, you’ll find thousands of banks like this which may have returns on equity below 10%. Any growth that these banks experience will lower an investor’s return instead of improving it. Time is not on your side if you select the wrong bank because they often don’t earn a high enough return. Why? Small towns especially have limited capital available to be stored in a bank. These towns are also heavily hit hard by the move towards online retail, urbanization, and loss of manufacturing jobs. Bankruptcy risk is higher than a normal industry While all companies can fail due to leverage, banks have more leverage than normal. While all companies can fail due to a liquidity trap, a bank’s entire business model is based on lending long-term and borrowing short-term. Remember, in episode 82, I talked about the benefit of fewer banks in the industry over time. That only exists because banks continue to fail and/or be bought out by larger competitors. This exemplifies that fa