Alessandro Aimone

First Foundation incurred a pre-tax goodwill impairment charge of $215.3 million in the second quarter of the year, resulting in a 360% increase in its non-interest expense. The Dallas-based institution attributed the charge to a “drastic change in macroeconomic conditions” and a series of interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve, all of which negatively impacted its market valuation.

Standard Chartered notched three value-at-risk (VAR) backtesting exceptions in the first six months of the year, bringing it to the verge of higher capital charges for trading activities. The latest overshoots, one in March and two in June, followed five breaches in the second half of last year, taking the one-year rolling total to eight. One extra backtesting excess during the period would have triggered an increase in the multiplier used to translate VAR readings into capital charges.

NatWest Group’s average liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) dropped six percentage points to 145% in the second quarter, after the lender shed easy-to-sell assets and saw a reduction in customer deposits. The UK bank’s stock of high-quality liquid assets (HQLAs) shrank 7% to £168.7 billion ($215.3 billion) in the three months to end-June, to the lowest point since Q4 2020.