23年高考英语外刊阅读理解训练——美国银行合并浪潮

23年高考英语外刊阅读理解训练——美国银行合并浪潮 ——改编自Why America will soon see a wave of bank mergers On April 18th, Western Alliance, a bank with $71 billion of assets, announced that it had lost 11% of its deposits this year. This loss can be attributed to the fact that banks need to pay more interest to tempt deposits back. Many banks have turned towards temporary loans, including from the Federal Reserve, which carry high interest rates. Low-yielding and illiquid assets hold most of these banks’ portfolios, which cannot be sold without incurring losses, predicting that a profound profit squeeze will come. More banks are scheduled to publish their reports, which could reveal further losses. However, the market has already reached a verdict on American banks: they are worth only their combined book value, about 40% less than at the beginning of the year. The low valuations, when combined with the belief that bigger banks fare better in a crisis, point to a consolidation trend. America currently has 4,700 banks and savings institutions, or one for every 71,000 residents. To Europeans who live in countries like the EU, which has only one bank for every 85,000 people, America’s number of banks seems excessive. The banking industry is anticipating an era of mergers and takeovers. Consequently, fewer companies will exist, but each one will be larger and more secure. The cost of maintaining a physical presence in many locations may be unsupportable for small banks that lack the technology to offload much of their work onto machines and invest in new services. In sums, the ongoing pressure to show reasonable profits growth and share-price returns despite adverse economic conditions will necessitate stronger mechanisms for risk management, compliance assurance, and cost efficiency. It calls for strategic alignment and collaboration between retail, corporate, and investment banking in areas of innovation, distribution, risk management, and compliance. 【重点词汇】 1. Alliance /əˈlaɪəns/ n. 联盟 2. B