ETF Spotlight on iShares Dow Jones U.S. Regional Banks (NYSEArca: IAT), part of a weekly series.
Assets: $119 million
Objective: Tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Select Regional Banks Index
Holdings: BB&T (NYSE: BBT); Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB); Suntrust Banks (NYSE: STI) and U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) are among the major holdings.
What You Should Know
- Regional banks are typically mid-sized banks that are larger than community banks, but smaller than large financial institutions
- Regional banks share some characteristics, including that such banks have a presence in a given geographic region and they don’t typically have any international locations
- The expense ratio of this fund is 0.48%
- The fund has 67 components
The Latest News
- President Barack Obama’s proposal to limit the size of the nation’s largest banks could ultimately be a boon to regional banks [Why regional banks could come out ahead.]
- These smaller banks won’t face the regulations and restrictions the big banks might, giving them more appeal than ever [The bad and the good.]
- Two regional banks that that stuck to their traditional business throughout the financial crisis turned in healthy results for the last quarter of a tumultuous year in the banking industry
- Many regional banks also don’t have much presence in the world of risky lending and operating hedge funds, says Paul R. La Monica at CNN Money
- Regional banks still have their problems, however; there are still bad loans in the commercial real estate market to contend with, and a high unemployment rate could trigger more delinquencies
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The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of Tom Lydon, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product.