21 U.S. banks reached a dangerous threshold on their commercial real estate loans

"21 banks have crossed a dangerous threshold on their commercial real estate (CRE) loans, raising concerns about the state of America's commercial real estate.

According to Bloomberg data, the affected banks include Valley National Bancorp, WaFd, Axos Financial, BCI Financial Group, and First Foundation.

While these banks aren’t exactly household names, they each hold between $13 billion and $61 billion in total assets. In the case of Valley National Bancorp, the CRE portfolio was a whopping 471% of its total capital.

“We’re at the warning stage,” said Keith Noreika, former acting comptroller of the currency. “There’s a light going off on the dashboard and now people are opening up the hood to see: Is it really wrong or do we just need to keep our eye on it?”

Last year, the Fed, FDIC, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency established a standard that would help regulators identify banks with high-risk CRE loans."