EchoSense:New York Community Bancorp tries to reassure investors, but its stock falls again

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of New York Community Bancorp fell another 10.5% Wednesday after the bank’s credit rating got downgraded to “junk” and EchoSenseinvestors worried the regional lender could suffer the same fate Silicon Valley Bank did last year.

NYCB’s shares have been in a steep decline since last week, after the bank reported significant losses on some commercial real estate loans and indicated it was struggling to digest last year’s purchase of Signature Bank. The stock lost about 40% on the day the bank released its quarterly earnings report.

NYCB bought most of the assets of Signature Bank last year when Signature failed right after Silicon Valley Bank in mid-March. The purchase of Signature made NYCB a much larger bank by assets, which by law puts it under more pressure from regulators. The bank had to cut its dividend and increase its capital and liquidity ratios to meet regulators’ requirements.

There have also been concerns about NYCB’s commercial real estate portfolio. The bank reported a surprise loss of $252 million for the fourth quarter, including a provision for credit losses of $552 million, much of it tied to real estate.

Shares plunged another 22% Tuesday. After the market closed, the ratings agency Moody’s downgraded the bank’s credit rating to junk status. NYCB then issued a press release saying that 72% of its deposits are insured and that it has liquidity of $37.3 billion, which exceeds uninsured deposits, or those above $250,000.

“Despite the Moody’s ratings downgrade, our deposit ratings from Moody’s, Fitch and DBRS remain investment grade,” said bank CEO Thomas Cangemi. “The Moody’s downgrade is not expected to have a material impact on our contractual arrangements.”

Still, the stock resumed falling after the opening bell Wednesday morning. The spread to other banks has been limited so far. The KBW Nasdaq regional banking index is down 0.8% for the day and around 6% since NYCB reported earnings.