Mark-to-model assets surge at top US banks in Q1

Level 3 instruments hit an aggregate $137 billion among banks over $100 billion in size

Assets deemed hard-to-value increased by almost a fifth at big US banks over the first quarter.

Level 3 assets, those for which market prices are not available and are instead valued using banks’ own models, totalled $137 billion across the 24 banks over $100 billion in size at end-March. This is 19% greater than the amount reported as of end-2019.

Among the eight US global systemically