The Big Picture has a great list of banks ranked by commercial real estate loans. What makes it particularly useful is that it also contains a column with total loans and leases so you get a better picture of each bank’s relative exposure.

It’s pretty sobering. The top thirty or so banks, with a couple of exceptions, don’t look that bad. They have a lot of exposure in absolute dollar terms but not so much on a percentage basis. As you work your way through the list you start getting some truly startling numbers. Real estate loans representing 25% of total loans and up are not unusual at all. Given that this is commercial real estate it’s not hard to start figuring which ones might end up in the FDIC’s Friday grist mill.

Here’s one that I found truly stupefying.

Now, Kalispell is a beautiful town in a spectacular part of the country, but how does a bank up there amass over $4 billion in loans and $1 billion in commercial real estate loans? Any guidance on that one is much appreciated.

I won’t steal traffic away from Barry since he just posted the list so here is the link to the post.