BB&T: Financial Winner

Later on Friday, a JPMorgan Chase said in a statement that the company was "unaware of any active SEC investigations into JPMorgan's RMBS activities beyond those we are resolving today."

The SEC said that Credit Suisse had "similarly failed to accurately disclose its practice of retaining cash for itself from the settlement of claims against mortgage loan originators for problems with loans that Credit Suisse had sold into RMBS trusts and no longer owned. Credit Suisse also made misstatements in SEC filings about when it would repurchase mortgage loans from trusts if borrowers missed the first payment due."

BankUnited (BKU) CEO John Kanas said in an interview on the Nightly Business Report Friday that "low interest rates are clearly hurting bank profitability," as banks' net interest margins continue to get squeezed, and that "if banks are unable to create new capital and grow their capital bases," they will be unable to support economic growth.

BB&T of Winston-Salem, N.C., has seen its stock return 14% year-to-date, following a 2% decline during 2011.

The shares trade for 1.7 times tangible book value, according to Thomson Reuters Bank Insight, and for 10 times the consensus 2013 earnings estimate of $2.93 among analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. Based on a quarterly payout of 20 cents, the shares have a dividend yield of 2.85%.

BB&T perfectly illustrates the concerns of Kanas and bank stock investors over narrowing margins in the prolonged low-rate environment. The company's net interest margin net interest margin (NIM) -- the difference between the average yield on loans and investments and the average cost for deposits and borrowings -- was 3.94% during the third quarter, which was a decline of only one basis point from the previous quarter, but BB&T estimated that the margin would narrow ""to the mid-3.70s% range in 4Q12."

Interested in more on BB&T? See TheStreet Ratings' report card for this stock.

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-- Written by Philip van Doorn in Jupiter, Fla.

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Philip W. van Doorn is a member of TheStreet's banking and finance team, commenting on industry and regulatory trends. He previously served as the senior analyst for TheStreet.com Ratings, responsible for assigning financial strength ratings to banks and savings and loan institutions. Mr. van Doorn previously served as a loan operations officer at Riverside National Bank in Fort Pierce, Fla., and as a credit analyst at the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York, where he monitored banks in New York, New Jersey and Puerto Rico. Mr. van Doorn has additional experience in the mutual fund and computer software industries. He holds a bachelor of science in business administration from Long Island University.

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