Wunderlich Securities Offers 2015 Banking Outlook: Growth, M&A And Potentially Higher Rates

Kevin Reynolds of Wunderlich Securities offered a 2015 outlook for the banking sector in a note on Friday. “Our outlook for 2015 calls for an operating environment that is very similar to 2014, with one exception: potentially higher short-term rates due to the start of FOMC tightening sometime in 2H15,” Reynolds wrote. The analyst adds that he is expecting two percent to four percent GDP growth, improving housing and labor markets and a flattening yield curve, all producing an environment of strengthening loan growth, stabilizing NIMs and accelerating merger and acquisition activity throughout 2015. Reynolds notes that bank stocks are well positioned to resume an upward trajectory in the coming years due to lower sector valuations at the beginning of 2015 compared to 2014. Heading into 2015, the analyst names

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