Biggest U.S. Banks Cut Municipal-Bond Holdings as Tax Rates Fall
- Shift may mark banks’ first retreat from market since 2009
- Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan, Wells reduced stakes
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More than a half dozen of the biggest U.S. banks reduced their holdings of state and local government bonds by billions of dollars after the federal government slashed corporate tax rates, making the securities less valuable to one of the market’s key buyers.
Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. together cut their stakes by $7.8 billion during the first three months of 2018, according to quarterly filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. State Street Corp., Morgan Stanley and First Republic Bank also reduced their municipal-debt holdings.