The struggling office market is weighing on the finances of banks, with two of the largest lenders in the United States saying nonpayments from those properties are piling up.
Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. bank measured by assets, said it quadrupled the amount of bad loans it charged off during the first quarter to $350 million compared to the previous quarter. Commercial real estate loans for office properties were the driver.
Problem office loans are also an issue at PNC Financial Services Group. Nonperforming loans in PNC’s commercial real estate segment rose 26% to $923 million in the first quarter compared to the prior quarter. Banks classify loans as nonperforming when borrowers are at least 90 days late on payments but still hold them on their books.
“The problem you have in office is, in many instances, there’s no cash flow at all,” Bill Demchak, CEO of Pittsburgh-based PNC, said during a conference call on Tuesday. “It’s a really unique animal at the moment.”
Executives at some of the country's other large banks — JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo — are saying they don't expect a turnaround in the office market anytime soon.
Hybrid and remote work patterns that emerged throughout the pandemic have combined with corporate cost-cutting and higher interest rates to reduce office demand. New U.S. office leasing volume totaled less than 100 million square feet in the fourth quarter of 2023, mirroring levels from the early years of the pandemic, according to CoStar data. Large U.S. cities currently average about 50% of pre-pandemic office attendance levels, according to Kastle Systems.
As office properties’ values are lowered, borrowers are renegotiating loans or walking away from buildings, Bank of America Chief Financial Officer Alastair Borthwick said during a conference call on Tuesday. That’s led to higher loan charge-offs.
Bank of America, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, charged off a total of 16 office-property loans during the first quarter, he said. Borthwick didn’t identify the borrowers or provide financial details.
However, Bank of America is looking for the performance of office properties in its $65.5 billion commercial real estate loan portfolio to improve later this year.
“We expect the losses to move lower in the second quarter and we expect a notable decline in the second half of the year when compared to the first half of this year, absent any material change in expected real estate prices,” Borthwick said during the call.
About $17.4 billion of Bank of America’s commercial real estate loan book is tied to office buildings, making it the largest category. Industrial is the second largest at $14.6 billion.
Bank of America also outlined to investors how its office loan portfolio has shrunk over the past five years and how it will continue to get smaller.
Commercial real estate represented about 21.2% of all commercial loans at Bank of America in the fourth quarter of 2009. That portion fell to 12% in the first quarter of this year. The commercial loan sector includes credits for daily business operations, equipment purchases and other items.
In addition, Bank of America holds about $14.2 billion of office loans that are scheduled to mature between now and the end of 2026. That will provide an opportunity to shrink the portfolio even more by not replacing the matured loans with new credits.
PNC, the No. 6 largest U.S. bank, is also cutting its exposure to the office market. PNC said its office loan portfolio decreased 3% to $7.8 billion in the first quarter compared to the previous quarter. Office makes up about 22% of PNC’s total commercial real estate loan book.