Tag: Breaking News: Markets

AI demand could strain electrical grid in coming decade

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Power lines and transmission towers near the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California, U.S., on Saturday, Feb. 19. 2022.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Artificial intelligence could strain the U.S. electric grid, as power demand from data centers is poised to surge in the coming decade just as supply is falling due to the rapid retirement of coal-fired plants.

Data centers in the U.S. alone could consume as much electricity as some major industrialized economies produce by 2030, as they proliferate not just in number but also in the scale of their power needs.

The computer warehouses that power the Internet and increasingly AI could require up to 400 terawatt hours of electricity by 2030, according to an August report from Mizuho Securities.

That’s more than the total electricity production of the United Kingdom in 2022, according to data from the International Energy Agency.

Data center developers are knocking at the door of the nation’s utilities at the same time many of these power companies are retiring coal plants as part of the transition away from fossil fuels. But the waiting list to bring clean energy, primarily solar and wind, onto the grid to replace coal is long and renewables are less reliable.

PJM Interconnection, the largest grid operator in the U.S., warned in July that the reliability of the system is a growing concern as coal plants close faster than new power generation is built.

PJM serves 13 states primarily in the Mid-Atlantic region, including northern Virginia, the largest data center market in the world. Resources in areas of Virginia are insufficient and the transmission system is constrained, limiting the ability to import power from elsewhere, according to PJM.

Yet data center “growth is accelerating in orders of magnitude, driven by the number of requests, the size of each facility and the acceleration of each facility’s ramp schedule to reach full capacity,” Dominion Energy CEO Robert Blue told investors on the company’s earnings call on Aug. 1.

Electrification of economy

In addition to data centers, manufacturing is returning to the U.S. and the broader economy is electrifying. Recent auction prices to bring new power capacity to the PJM power pool have surged more than 800% as a consequence of rising demand and limited supply.

“The market has already made one transition from coal to gas,” Susan Buehler, a spokesperson for PJM, told CNBC. “We see this energy transition is here. We just see that the forces around it are happening faster than the renewable energy transition is happening.”

“So we see a potential gap, and that’s what the market is signaling,” Buehler said.

PJM has forecast that electricity demand surge will surge nearly 40% by 2039 in its 369,000-square mile service area. Meanwhile, 40 gigawatts of existing power generation is at risk of retirement by 2030, or about 21% of PJM’s current installed capacity.

While there are 290 gigawatts of renewable projects waiting to get connected to the grid, in the past only about 5% of such projects have actually been built, according to PJM.

About 38 gigawatts of renewable energy have been approved for connection and another 72 gigawatts are coming in the first quarter of 2025, Buehler said, but the projects are not being built quickly enough due the challenges developers are facing on the ground.

Buehler said developers “can’t get their projects sited, there are supply chain delays, and there are financing issues.”

Step-change in investment needed

Utilities that operate in PJM have disclosed at least 50 gigawatts of potential data center demand during their recent earnings calls, though CEOs have cautioned there could be some duplication in the numbers.

About 29% of current data center electricity demand in the U.S. is located within PJM’s territory, according to Mizuho. Some 25% of data center power demand in the nation is in Virginia.

American Electric Power, one of the largest electric utilities in the U.S., has commitments for more than 15 gigawatts of demand from data centers through the end of the decade, interim CEO Benjamin Fowke told investors on the company’s second-quarter earnings call earlier last month.

That level of demand is equivalent to more than 40% of the peak electric load of 35 gigawatts across AEP’s entire system at the end of last year, according to Fowke. AEP serves 5.6 million customers in 11 states in the Midwest and South.

“These are far from just inquiries,” Fowke told investors. “These are serious customers that want to get on the grid and are willing to financially commit to do what it takes to get on the grid.”

Fowke testified to Congress in May that demand for electricity in some parts of the U.S. is already outstripping available capacity on the grid. The former CEO of Xcel Energy said that requests from large customers would more than double the current peak demand on the utility’s system.

“It took over 100 years of planning and building to create our current system, and a step-change in infrastructure investment on an accelerated timeline will be required to serve even a fraction of this future demand in a reliable manner,” Fowke told the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

The cost of building new infrastructure to meet the demand is expected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars, Fowke said.

In the past, a large manufacturing facility might need 100 megawatts of electricity — equivalent to about 100,000 homes, Fowke told Congress. It is now increasingly common for a single data center to need anywhere from three to 15 times that amount of power, the CEO said.

Dominion Energy regularly gets requests to support data center campuses that require as much as several gigawatts of power, Blue said in May. That’s larger than the average capacity of a nuclear reactor in the U.S.

Going around the grid

One of the many challenges in connecting this kind of demand to the grid is that it can take up to a decade to decide the exact route a transmission line will take, get the necessary permits and build it, Edison Electric Institute senior vice president for customer solutions Phil Dion told Congress in June.

As a result, tech companies that are building data centers are increasingly looking at directly connecting their facilities to large power resources, such as nuclear plants, rather than waiting to access the grid. But that approach is already facing controversy.

Amazon Web Services purchased a data center campus in March from Talen Energy for $650 million that will be powered directly by the Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. It was viewed by some in the industry as a landmark agreement that could pave the way for more nuclear-powered data centers.

But AEP has challenged the agreement before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, warning that such arrangements could further constrain supply on the electric grid.

Constellation Energy CEO Joe Dominguez told investors earlier this month that hooking data centers directly to nuclear reactors is the fastest and most cost effective solution. Constellation operates the largest portfolio of nuclear plants in the U.S.

“The notion that you could accumulate enough power somewhere on the grid to power a gigawatt data center is frankly laughable to me,” Dominguez said on Constellation’s August earnings call.

Utility executives have warned that failure to meet rising demand from data centers could affect the entire U.S. economy.

“If I can’t get that power capacity online, I cannot do the data center. I cannot do the manufacturing. I can’t grow the core businesses of some of the largest corporations in the country,” Petter Skantze, vice president of infrastructure development at NextEra Energy Resources, the renewable energy unit of NextEra Energy, said at a conference in New York City in June.

“The stakes are really, really high,” Skantze said. “This is a new environment. We have to get this right.”

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Tech companies want nuclear power. Some utilities are throwing up roadblocks

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A cooling tower at the Constellation Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station in Scriba, New York, US, on Tuesday, May 9, 2023. 

Lauren Petracca | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Tech companies are increasingly looking to directly connect data centers to nuclear plants as they race to secure clean energy to power artificial intelligence, sparking resistance from some utilities over the potential impact on the electric grid.

Data centers, the computer warehouses that run the Internet, in some cases now require a gigawatt or more of power, comparable to the average capacity of a nuclear reactor in the U.S.

The data centers are essential to U.S. economic competitiveness and national security as the country competes with adversaries such as China for supremacy in the race to develop AI, said Joe Dominguez, the CEO of Constellation Energy, which operates the largest nuclear fleet in the U.S.

“When you’re talking about large [demand] load that also wants to use zero-emission energy, you’re going to bring it very close to nuclear power plants,” Dominguez said on Constellation’s second-quarter earnings call Tuesday. Constellation, headquartered in Baltimore, operates 21 of the 93 reactors in the U.S.

Constellation’s shares have surged 62% this year, the sixth-best stock in the S&P 500, as investors attach a higher value to the company’s nuclear power capacity to meet the growth in data centers. Shares of Vistra Corp., based outside Dallas and owner of six reactors, have doubled this year, the second-best performing stock in the S&P after AI chipmaker Nvidia.

Tech companies are building out data centers just as power supply is increasingly constrained due to the retirement of coal plants and as demand is climbing from the expansion of domestic manufacturing and the electrification of vehicles.

The largest grid operator in the U.S., PJM Interconnection, warned in late July that power supply and demand is tightening as construction of new generation lags demand. PJM covers 13 states primarily in the Mid-Atlantic region, including the world’s largest data center hub in northern Virginia.

Constellation’s Dominguez argued that connecting data centers directly to nuclear plants, called co-location by the industry, is the fastest and most cost-effective way to support the buildout of data centers, without burdening consumers with the costs of building new transmission lines.

“The notion that you could accumulate enough power somewhere on the grid to power a gigawatt data center is frankly laughable to me — that you could do that in anywhere that doesn’t start with decades of time,” Dominguez said. “This is an enormous amount of power to go out and try to concentrate.”

Amazon’s nuclear agreement

But co-locating data centers next to nuclear plants already faces controversy.

In March, Amazon Web Services bought a data center powered by the 41-year-old Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania from Talen Energy for $650 million . But the agreement to directly sell power to the AWS data center from the nuclear plant already faces opposition from utilities American Electric Power and Exelon, who have filed complaints at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

AEP and Exelon argue that the deal between Amazon and Talen sets a precedent that will result in less available power in the PJM grid area as resources “flee to serve load that uses and benefits from — but does not pay for — the transmission system”

“This will harm existing customers,” the utilities told FERC in a filing in June. Talen Energy has dismissed the objections as “demonstrably false,” accusing the utilities of stifling innovation.

“The rapid emergence of artificial intelligence and data centers has fundamentally changed the demand for power and leads to an inflection point for the power industry,” Talen said in a June statement. “Talen’s co-location arrangement with AWS brings one solution to this new demand, on a timeline that serves the customer quickly.”

FERC has requested more information on the service agreement between Talen and AWS. The regulator is holding a conference in the fall to discuss issues associated with connecting large electricity loads directly to power plants.

“It really is a great opportunity for there to be interaction between stakeholders and the commissioners in an informal setting like a conference, as opposed to doing so in litigation,” Kathleen Barrón, chief strategy officer at Constellation, said on the power company’s recent earnings call, referring to the fall FERC meeting.

Shopping for nuclear power

Constellation and Vistra have backed the AWS-Talen agreement in filings to FERC, with each of their CEOs saying on their earnings calls this week that co-location and traditional grid connection will be needed to meet demand.

Barrón told CNBC that Constellation has “seen interest from many” tech companies in potentially co-locating a data center at one of its sites.

Vistra is having numerous conversations with customers about co-location and is “in due diligence for a number of sites,” CEO Jim Burke said Thursday. With the dispute in the PJM region over co-location, data center developers may take a closer look at Texas, which operates its own grid called ERCOT, Burke said.

“We’re seeing some interest in Comanche Peak,” Burke told analysts on the company’s second-quarter earnings call, referring to one of Vistra’s nuclear plants. Comanche Peak, about 50 miles outside Fort Worth, Texas, has two reactors with 2.4 gigawatts of capacity, enough to power 1.2 million homes in typical conditions and 480,000 homes in peak periods, according to Vistra.

And Dominion Energy has indicated it is open to connecting a data center to the Millstone nuclear plant in Connecticut. The Dominion service region includes northern Virginia, the epicenter of the data center boom.

“We continue to explore that option,” CEO Robert Blue said on Dominion’s second-quarter earnings call. “We do clearly realize any co-location option is going to have to make sense for us, our potential counterparty and stakeholders in Connecticut.”

Kelly Trice, president of Holtec International, a privately held nuclear company headquartered in Florida, said the U.S. needs to start thinking more about balancing the power needs of data centers with those of all consumers. Holtec is working to restart the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan and has also had conversations with tech companies about nuclear energy.

“Essentially, the hyperscalers and the data centers can take all the power and the consumer not get any of that if we’re not careful,” Trice told CNBC. “So the balance there, where the consumers actually get what is rightfully theirs too, is a factor.”

“The United States hasn’t really started wrestling [with] that yet,” Trice said. “But I think we’re getting close.”

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JPMorgan Chase is giving its employees an AI assistant powered by ChatGPT maker OpenAI

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JPMorgan Chase has rolled out a generative artificial intelligence assistant to tens of thousands of its employees in recent weeks, the initial phase of a broader plan to inject the technology throughout the sprawling financial giant.

The program, called LLM Suite, is already available to more than 60,000 employees, helping them with tasks like writing emails and reports. The software is expected to eventually be as ubiquitous within the bank as the videoconferencing program Zoom, people with knowledge of the plans told CNBC.

Rather than developing its own AI models, JPMorgan designed LLM Suite to be a portal that allows users to tap external large language models — the complex programs underpinning generative AI tools — and launched it with ChatGPT maker OpenAI’s LLM, said the people.

“Ultimately, we’d like to be able to move pretty fluidly across models depending on the use cases,” Teresa Heitsenrether, JPMorgan’s chief data and analytics officer, said in an interview. “The plan is not to be beholden to any one model provider.”

Teresa Heitsenrether is the firm’s chief data and analytics officer.

Courtesy: Joe Vericker | PhotoBureau

The move by JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank by assets, shows how quickly generative AI has swept through American corporations since the arrival of ChatGPT in late 2022. Rival bank Morgan Stanley has already released a pair of OpenAI-powered tools for its financial advisors. And consumer tech giant Apple said in June that it was integrating OpenAI models into the operating system of hundreds of millions of its consumer devices, vastly expanding its reach.

The technology — hailed by some as the “Cognitive Revolution” in which tasks formerly done by knowledge workers will be automated — could be as important as the advent of electricity, the printing press and the internet, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said in April.

It will likely “augment virtually every job” at the bank, Dimon said. JPMorgan had about 313,000 employees as of June.

ChatGPT ban

The bank is giving employees what is essentially OpenAI’s ChatGPT in a JPMorgan-approved wrapper more than a year after it restricted employees from using ChatGPT. That’s because JPMorgan didn’t want to expose its data to external providers, Heitsenrether said.

“Since our data is a key differentiator, we don’t want it being used to train the model,” she said. “We’ve implemented it in a way that we can leverage the model while still keeping our data protected.”

The bank has introduced LLM Suite broadly across the company, with groups using it in JPMorgan’s consumer division, investment bank, and asset and wealth management business, the people said. It can help employees with writing, summarizing lengthy documents, problem solving using Excel, and generating ideas.

But getting it on employees’ desktops is just the first step, according to Heitsenrether, who was promoted in 2023 to lead the bank’s adoption of the red-hot technology.

“You have to teach people how to do prompt engineering that is relevant for their domain to show them what it can actually do,” Heitsenrether said. “The more people get deep into it and unlock what it’s good at and what it’s not, the more we’re starting to see the ideas really flourishing.”

The bank’s engineers can also use LLM Suite to incorporate functions from external AI models directly into their programs, she said.

‘Exponentially bigger’

JPMorgan has been working on traditional AI and machine learning for more than a decade, but the arrival of ChatGPT forced it to pivot.

Traditional, or narrow, AI performs specific tasks involving pattern recognition, like making predictions based on historical data. Generative AI is more advanced, however, and trains models on vast data sets with the goal of pattern creation, which is how human-sounding text or realistic images are formed.

The number of uses for generative AI are “exponentially bigger” than previous technology because of how flexible LLMs are, Heitsenrether said.

The bank is testing many cases for both forms of AI and has already put a few into production.

JPMorgan is using generative AI to create marketing content for social media channels, map out itineraries for clients of the travel agency it acquired in 2022 and summarize meetings for financial advisors, she said.

The consumer bank uses AI to determine where to place new branches and ATMs by ingesting satellite images and in call centers to help service personnel quickly find answers, Heitsenrether said.

In the firm’s global-payments business, which moves more than $8 trillion around the world daily, AI helps prevent hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud, she said.

But the bank is being more cautious with generative AI that directly touches upon the individual customer because of the risk that a chatbot gives bad information, Heitsenrether said.

Ultimately, the generative AI field may develop into “five or six big foundational models” that dominate the market, she said.

The bank is testing LLMs from U.S. tech giants as well as open source models to onboard to its portal next, said the people, who declined to be identified speaking about the bank’s AI strategy.

Friend or foe?

Heitsenrether charted out three stages for the evolution of generative AI at JPMorgan.

The first is simply making the models available to workers; the second involves adding proprietary JPMorgan data to help boost employee productivity, which is the stage that has just begun at the company.

The third is a larger leap that would unlock far greater productivity gains, which is when generative AI is powerful enough to operate as autonomous agents that perform complex multistep tasks. That would make rank-and-file employees more like managers with AI assistants at their command.

The technology will likely empower some workers while displacing others, changing the composition of the industry in ways that are hard to predict.

Banking jobs are the most prone to automation of all industries, including technology, health care and retail, according to consulting firm Accenture. AI could boost the sector’s profits by $170 billion in just four years, Citigroup analysts said.  

People should consider generative AI “like an assistant that takes away the more mundane things that we would all like to not do, where it can just give you the answer without grinding through the spreadsheets,” Heitsenrether said.

“You can focus on the higher-value work,” she said.

— CNBC’s Leslie Picker contributed to this report.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO

Watch CNBC's full interview with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon on economy, AI hype, and more

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Coterra’s strong energy production allowed for big cash returns to shareholders

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In this photo illustration, a Coterra Energy Inc. logo is seen on a smartphone screen.

Pavlo Gonchar | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images

Coterra Energy missed Wall Street expectations for sales and earnings in the second quarter. However, production volumes and more importantly cash generation both came in ahead of expectations.

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Your 401(k) is up, and a new report shows increased savings. But Americans need to do more

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How’s your 401(k) looking? A new report shows Americans are saving more, but probably need to do even more. 

Vanguard has released its annual report, How America Saves 2024. Vanguard and Fidelity are the two biggest sponsors of 401(k) plans, and this is a snapshot of what nearly five million participants are doing with their money. 

The good news: stock market returns are up and, thanks largely to automatic enrollment plans, investors are saving more than they did in the past. 

The bad news: account balances for the median 401(k) of a person approaching retirement (65+) remains very low. 

The takeaway: Americans are still very reliant on Social Security for a large chunk of their retirement. 

Higher returns, participation rates, savings rates 

Why do we care so much about 401(k) plans? Because it’s the main private savings vehicle Americans have for retirement. More than 100 million Americans are covered by these “defined contribution” plans, with more than $10 trillion in assets. 

First, 2023 was a good year to be an investor.  The average total return rate for participants was 18.1%, the best year since 2019. 

But to be effective vehicles for retirement, these plans need to: 1) have high participation rates, and 2) hold high levels of savings. 

On those fronts, there is good news. John James, managing director of Vanguard’s Institutional Investor Group, called it “a year of progress.” 

Plan participation reached all-time highs. Thanks to a change in the law several years ago, a record-high 59% of plans offered automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans. This is a major improvement: ipreviously, enrollment in 401(k) plans were often short of expectations because investors had to “opt-in,” that is they had to choose to participate in the plan.  Because of indecision or simple ignorance, many did not. By switching to automatic enrollment, participants were automatically enrolled and had to “opt-out” if they did not want to participate. 

The result: enrollment rates have gone up. Plans with automatic enrollment had a 94% participation rate, compared with 67% for voluntary enrollment plans. 

Participant saving rates reached all time highs. The average participant deferred 7.4% of their savings. Including employee and employer contributions, the average total participant contribution rate was 11.7%. 

A few other observations about Vanguard’s 401(k) plan investors: 

They prefer equities and target date funds.  They love equities over bonds or any other investments. The average plan contribution to equities is 74%.  A record-high 64% of all 2023 contributions went into target-date funds, which automatically adjust stock and bond allocations as the participant ages. 

They don’t trade much. In 2023, only 5% of nonadvised participants traded within their accounts; 95% did no trading at all. “Over the past 15 years, we have generally observed a decline in participant trading,” Vanguard said, which it partially attributed to increased adoption of target-date funds. 

Despite gains in the market, account balances are still low

In 2023, the average account balance for Vanguard participants was $134,128, but the median balance (half had more, half had less) was only $35,286. 

Why such a big difference between the average and the median? Because a small group of investors with large balances pull up the averages. Forty percent of participants had less than $20,000 in their retirement accounts. 

Distribution of account balances

  • Less than $20,000     40%
  • $20,000-$99,999        30%
  • $100,000-$249,900  15%
  • $250,000 +                  15%

Source:  Vanguard 

Median balances for those near retirement are still low

A different way to look at the problem is to ask how much people who are retirement age have saved, because it’s an indication of how prepared they are for imminent retirement.

Investors 65 years or older had an average account balance of $272,588, but a median balance of only $88,488. 

A median balance of $88,488 is not much when you consider older participants have higher incomes and higher savings rates. That is not much money for a 65-year old nearing retirement.

Of course, these balances don’t necessarily reflect total lifetime savings. Some have more than one retirement plan because they had other plans with previous employers. Most do have other sources of retirement savings, typically Social Security. A shrinking number may also have a pension. Some may have money in checking accounts, or have stocks or bonds outside a retirement account. 

Regardless, the math does not look great

So let’s do some retirement math. 

A typical annual drawdown for a 401(k) account in retirement is about 4%. Drawing down 4% of $88,488 a year gets you $3,539 every 12 months. 

Next, Social Security. As of January 2023, the average Social Security benefit was almost $1,689 per month, or about $20,268 per year.

Finally, even though pensions are a vanishing benefit, let’s include them. 

According to the Pension Rights Center, the median annual pension benefit for a private pension is $9,262 (government employees have higher benefits). 

Here’s our yearly retirement budget:

  • Personal savings $3,539
  • Pension                 $9,262
  • Social Security   $20,264
  • Total:                   $33,065

It’s certainly possibly to live on $33,000 a year, but this would likely only work if you own your home, have low expenses and live in a low-cost part of the country. 

Even then, it would hardly be a robust retirement. 

And these are the lucky ones. Only 57% of retirees have a tax-deferred retirement account like a 401(k) or IRA. Only 56% reported receiving income from a pension. 

And that extra income largely determines whether a retiree feels good or bad about their retirement. 

In 2023, four out five retirees said they were doing at least okay financially, but this varied tremendously depending on whether retirees had sources of income outside of Social Security. Only 52% of retirees who did not have private income said they were doing at least okay financially. 

What can be done? 

To have a more robust retirement, Americans are just going to have to save more. 

One issue is investors still don’t contribute the maximum amount allowed. Only 14% of participants saved the statutory maximum amount of $22,500 per year ($30,000 for those age 50 or older). The likely reason: most felt they couldn’t afford to. 

However, only 53% of even those with income over $150,000 contributed the maximum allowed.  Given that the employee match is “free money,” one would think participants in that income bracket would rationally choose to max out their contribution. The fact that many still don’t suggests that more investor education is needed. 

Regardless, it’s very dangerous to assume that retirees are going to be bailed out by an ever-rising stock market. Another year anywhere near 2022, when the S&P 500 was down 20%, and investor confidence in their financial future will likely deteriorate.

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The best banks in the Asia-Pacific region, according to customers

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SINGAPORE — Customers in Asia-Pacific have picked their favorite banks as lenders scramble to meet consumer expectations in a fast-changing environment.

After a prolonged period of high inflation — and interest rates — banks in the region are starting to navigate the global trend of lower rates. They’re also facing technological innovation that has the potential to transform the sector, as generative AI gains traction around the world.

Against this backdrop, CNBC and market research firm Statista surveyed 22,000 individuals with a checking or savings account in 14 major economies. The report below — the first of its kind — is designed to highlight the banks that best meet consumer needs in their respective markets.

For the survey, participants evaluated their overall satisfaction with a bank, and whether they would recommend it to others. They also rated each based on five criteria: trust, terms and conditions (such as fees and rates), customer service, digital services and quality of financial advice. Read the full methodology here. The ranking only included banks that qualified according to the criteria described in the report.

See below to see which banks made the list in your location.

Australia

1 ING Group
2 Bank Australia
3 Westpac
4 Ubank
5 NAB
6 Alex Bank
7 Newcastle Permanent Building Society
8 People’s Choice Credit Union
9 Beyond Bank
10 ME
11 Suncorp
12 MyState Bank
13 Australian Military Bank
14 Community First bank
15 Heritage Bank

Source: CNBC & Statista

Dutch bank ING came out top in Australia, against a sea of local competition. Like most economies, Australians valued trust the most and were less concerned on the financial advice they were given.

China

1 China Merchants Bank
2 Bank of China
3 ICBC
4 HSBC
5 China Construction Bank
6 Postal Savings Bank of China
7 China Minsheng Bank
8 Standard Chartered
9 SPD Bank
10 Bank of Communications
11 Agricultural Bank of China
12 UBS (China) Limited
13 JPMorgan Chase Bank (China)
14 China Everbright Bank
15 Ping An Bank
16 DBS Bank (China)
17 Bank of Suzhou
18 Bank of Jiangsu
19 Chongqing Rural Commercial Bank
20 Hang Seng Bank
21 Hubei Rural Credit Union Association
22 Huishang Bank
23 East West Bank
24 WeBank
25 Hankou Bank (HKB)

Source: CNBC & Statista

China Merchants Bank, listed in both Shanghai and Hong Kong, earned the top spot in mainland China beating both domestic and foreign players.

Hong Kong

1 China Construction Bank
2 China Minsheng Bank
3 ICBC
4 SPD Bank
5 China Everbright Bank
6 Bank of Communication
7 HSBC
8 CGB
9 Livi Bank
10 China Merchants Bank

Source: CNBC & Statista

China Construction Bank, one of China’s four major state-owned banking institutions, was ranked the top lender over foreign players like HSBC.

India

1 ICICI Bank
2 HDFC Bank
3 Axis Bank
4 Kotak Mahindra Bank
5 State Bank of India
6 HSBC
7 Paytm Payments Bank
8 Standard Chartered
9 Federal Bank
10 IndusInd Bank
11 Union Bank of India
12 Karnataka Bank
13 Punjab National Bank
14 Bank of Baroda
15 Bandhan Bank
16 Fincare
17 DSCB
18 Kerala Gramin Bank
19 Fino Payments Bank
20 APCOB
21 Punjab Gramin Bank
22 IDFC First Bank
23 UCO Bank
24 RBLBank
25 New India Bank

Source: CNBC & Statista

ICICI bank, a leading private sector bank in India, was the top pick in the country despite strong competition from mostly local lenders.

Indonesia

1 Bank Central Asia
2 Bank Mandiri
3 Sea Bank
4 Jago
5 Raya Bank
6 Bank Negara Indonesia
7 United Overseas Bank
8 PermataBank
9 Cimb Niaga
10 DBS
11 Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI)
12 BNC
13 Bank Muamalat
14 Jenius
15 BCA Syariah
16 HSBC
17 BDP DIY
18 Bank Aceh
19 Standard Chartered
20 Bank Sumsel Babel

Source: CNBC & Statista

Bank Central Asia, Indonesia’s largest private commercial bank, beat the competition to clinch the top spot. Customers valued both trust as well as digital services in their ranking.  

Japan

1 SBI Sumishin Net Bank
2 Rakuten Bank
3 Sony Bank
4 Aeon Bank
5 au Jibun Bank
6 PayPay Bank
7 Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation
8 Senshu Ikeda Bank
9 The Juhachi-Shinwa Bank
10 Iyo Bank
11 Ehime Bank
12 Japan Post Bank
13 Ja Bank
14 Kyushu Labor Bank
15 Hamamatsu Iwata Shinkin Bank
16 Keiyo Bank
17 Bank of Fukuoka
18 Shinsei Bank
19 The Nishi-Nippon City Bank
20 Aozora Bank
21 Saitama Resona Bank
22 MUFG Bank
23 Lawson Bank
24 Gunma Bank
25 Hachijuni Bank
26 Rokin Bank
27 Kiyo Bank
28 Tokyo Star Bank
29 The Bank of Okinawa
30 Kyoto Chuo Shinkin Bank
31 Abukuma Shinkin Bank
32 North Pacific Bank
33 Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank
34 Tottori Bank
35 Bank of Kyoto

Source: CNBC & Statista

SBI Sumishin Net Bank, a Japan-based company, managed to beat other domestic lenders to come out top. Japanese citizens valued trust as their most important criteria.

Malaysia

1 Maybank
2 Standard Chartered
3 Maybank Islamic
4 HSBC
5 RHB Islamic Bank
6 Bank Islam
7 AmBank Group Islamic
8 OCBC Bank
9 United Overseas Bank
10 Hong Leong Islamic Bank

Source: CNBC & Statista

Maybank, which is the largest bank by market value in Malaysia, was the customers top pick against competition from domestic and foreign lenders.

New Zealand

1 Bank of New Zealand
2 ASB Bank
3 The Co-operative Bank
4 SBS Bank
5 Kiwibank

Source: CNBC & Statista

Bank of New Zealand, one of New Zealand’s big four banks, earned the top spot among consumers who also valued trust as the most important criteria. In some economies, like New Zealand, there are fewer competitors in the market and the size of the banking market differs, thus only five banks made the list.

Philippines

1 Philippine National Bank
2 Union Bank (Philippines)
3 Maya Bank
4 OFBank
5 UnionDigital Bank
6 UNO Digital Bank
7 GoTyme Bank
8 LANDBANK
9 Metrobank
10 BPI

Source: CNBC & Statista

Philippine National Bank, one of the largest banks in the country, earned the top rank against competition from largely local lenders.

Singapore

1 DBS
2 HSBC
3 Citibank
4 Bank of Singapore
5 United Overseas Bank

Source: CNBC & Statista

Singapore’s biggest bank DBS beat its domestic peers to clinch the top spot in the city-state. Given the small market size, there are fewer banking competitors as a result only five made the list.

South Korea

1 TossBank
2 KakaoBank
3 Kwangju Bank
4 K bank
5 Jeonbuk Bank
6 KB Kookmin Bank
7 Industrial Bank of Korea
8 DGB Daegu Bank
9 BNK Busan Bank
10 KEB Hana Bank

Source: CNBC & Statista

Toss Bank, an internet-only bank based in South Korea, managed to fend off domestic competition to emerge as top lender in the country.

Taiwan

1 E.Sun Financial
2 Bank SinoPac
3 Standard Chartered
4 CTBC Bank
5 Taipei Fubon Bank
6 Taishin International Bank
7 HSBC
8 Rakuten International Commercial Bank
9 Cathay Financial
10 Mega International Commercial Bank

Source: CNBC & Statista

Taiwan’s E.Sun Financial, headquartered in Taipei, earned the top ranking with customers focused on trust and less concerned about financial advice.

Thailand

1 Kasikornbank
2 Siam Commercial Bank
3 Bank of Ayudhya
4 United Overseas Bank
5 Krung Thai Bank

Source: CNBC & Statista

Kasikornbank bank, Thailand’s second-largest lender, came out top in the country. Only five banks made the list as there are fewer competitors and the size of banking market varies.

Vietnam

1 Techcombank
2 Vietcombank
3 BIDV
4 Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank
5 ACB
6 Vietinbank
7 VIB
8 TPBank
9 Sacombank
10 VP Bank
11 BVBank
12 Shinhan Bank
13 SeA Bank
14 HDBank
15 Ocean Bank

Source: CNBC & Statista

Vietnamese private lender Techcombank is the customers’ top pick in the country, where trust again was the key factor for survey respondents.

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Oil alliance OPEC+ could extend production cuts this weekend as focus shifts away from Middle East tensions, sources say

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The OPEC logo on the building of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Thomas Coex | Afp | Getty Images

The oil-producing Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies could extend existing output cuts this week, delegates and analysts told CNBC, even as focus shifts from Middle East tensions to summer demand.

The group, collectively known as OPEC+, was set to convene in person in Vienna on June 1, but last week moved the encounter virtually to June 2.

OPEC+ producers are currently implementing a combined 5.86 million barrels per day of supply cuts. Just 2 million barrels per day of these cuts represent unanimous commitments under OPEC group policy, and expire at the end of this year.

The remainder are reduced voluntarily by a subset of the alliance. A cut of 1.66 million per barrel is in place until the end of 2024, and 2.2 million barrels per day of supplies have been trimmed until the end of the second quarter. Market participants are watching whether this latter cut will be extended for another quarter, amid projected demand hikes.

“Come June, China would be largely out of refinery maintenance, U.S. consumption is improving as summer moves closer, so June should already see negative crude balances. And then August is the peak month for tightness,” Viktor Katona, lead crude analyst at Kpler, told CNBC.

The OPEC+ coalition is also eyeing individual members’ quota compliance, asking overproducers to implement additional cuts. Iraq and Kazakhstan have detailed compensation plans.

Extension

Three OPEC+ delegates, who spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of talks, told CNBC the 2.2 million-barrels-per-day supply reductions will likely be prolonged, with a fourth saying this is the scenario anticipated by the market. One delegate acknowledged the probable market tightness in the second half of the year, but noted that demand concerns persisted until only recently.

OPEC’s latest Monthly Oil Market Report of May projects a 2.25 million barrel-per-day increase in demand this year, while Paris-based International Energy Agency’s Oil Market Report of the same month points to just a 1.06 million-barrel-per-day demand hike.

“I think that the clever thing for OPEC+ would be to gradually unwind the voluntary cuts to limit the upside price pressure, to prevent refilling inflation,” Jorge Leon, senior vice president of Rystad Energy’s Oil Market Research, told CNBC. “However, I think that the market right now has priced in a full extension of the voluntary cuts. So I think that is what, probably, they will do.”

He added, “If they decide to fully extend the voluntary cuts, and there is perfect compliance, and they do the full compensation, and then, if, I think prices could reach closer to $100 per barrel this summer.”

Energy security concerns fueled global inflation in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and were further stoked after the conflict in Gaza threatened a broader spillover in the oil-rich Middle East, while frequent maritime attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militants disrupted trade transit in the Red Sea.

A high-inflation environment and tight monetary policy in turn reined in oil demand, but central banks have signaled readiness to lower interest rates in the second half of the year.

Tamas Varga, analyst at PVM Oil Associates, told CNBC that the OPEC+ supply restrictions will likely remain in place for the third quarter, adding, “I also believe that the producer group will emphasize that anyone who did not comply with the quota will have to make amends. And I believe that OPEC+ will only ease the supply constraints when they see obvious signs of global oil inventories depleting.”

Kpler’s Katona aligned with the views, but noted that heavyweights Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United Arab Emirates, who participate in the voluntary reductions, could seek to scrap the latter curbs toward the end of the year.

“Further down the line into 2025, unwinding cuts might be challenging for prices as incremental production from Guyana, Brazil, Canada will saturate the markets,” he said, flagging new Floating Production Storage and Offloading facilities due to come online. “This year there’s no new FPSO in Guyana, whilst next year it starts up a new one in [third-quarter] 2025. Brazil, likewise, has one FPSO starting up this year whilst next year it will be a bonanza of new capacity.”

S&P Global Commodity Insights: We expect OPEC+ to extend cuts through year-end

Rising competing supplies have reduced the market prominence of OPEC+, one OPEC+ delegate acknowledged, while analysts signaled that the group’s ongoing output cuts allows unfettered producers to capture their market share.

Priced in

Oil prices have largely languished range-bound in the first half of the year, under ongoing threat of spikes from developments in the Middle East. Regional escalations could top prices with a risk premium of up to $10 per barrel, Rystad’s Jorge Leon noted – while OPEC+ delegates told CNBC that the situation in the Gaza Strip is still adding a little pressure, but that the market has already absorbed the majority of its effect.

Katona likewise noted that the Gaza crisis “will seemingly persist for longer than everyone expected but it doesn’t really have an imprint on OPEC+ coherence and policy.”                     

One OPEC+ delegate meanwhile said that the unexpected death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi represented a tragic accident that could not be interpreted as a risk to the market, especially given that his successor will likely pursue similar politics.

“I think the geopolitical risk premium has subsided and I think that the tension between Israel and Hamas will only support prices if it will have an obvious impact on oil production or oil flows, which might come in the form of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, or attacks on oil infrastructure in the region, something which does not look plausible at the moment,” Varga said.

OPEC+ must also balance its relationship with the U.S., which has previously blasted the coalition’s supply cuts amid concerns over gasoline prices. The Biden administration last week said it will release 1 million barrels of gasoline from reserves in a bid to curb prices at the pump. The U.S. undertook similar crude releases from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve Stocks during the Covid-19 pandemic, but one OPEC+ delegate noted such measures are unlikely to have an impact beyond price relief during the summer. The U.S. typically seeks to replenish the emergency stockpile of its state reserves.

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Berkshire Hathaway’s big mystery stock wager could be revealed soon

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Warren Buffett tours the grounds at the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha Nebraska.

David A. Grogan | CNBC

Berkshire Hathaway, led by legendary investor Warren Buffett, has been making a confidential wager on the financial industry since the third quarter of last year.

The identity of the stock — or stocks — that Berkshire has been snapping up could be revealed Saturday at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.

That’s because unless Berkshire has been granted confidential treatment on the investment for a third quarter in a row, the stake will be disclosed in filings later this month. So the 93-year-old Berkshire CEO may decide to explain his rationale to the thousands of investors flocking to the gathering.

The bet, shrouded in mystery, has captivated Berkshire investors since it first appeared in disclosures late last year. At a time when Buffett has been a net seller of stocks and lamented a dearth of opportunities capable of “truly moving the needle at Berkshire,” he has apparently found something he likes — and in the financial realm no less.

That’s an area he has dialed back on in recent years over concerns about rising loan defaults. High interest rates have taken a toll on some financial players like regional U.S. banks, while making the yield on Berkshire’s cash pile in instruments like T-bills suddenly attractive.

“When you are the GOAT of investing, people are interested in what you think is good,” said Glenview Trust Co. Chief Investment Officer Bill Stone, using an acronym for greatest of all time. “What makes it even more exciting is that banks are in his circle of competence.”

Under Buffett, Berkshire has trounced the S&P 500 over nearly six decades with a 19.8% compounded annual gain, compared with the 10.2% yearly rise of the index.

Coverage note: The annual meeting will be exclusively broadcast on CNBC and livestreamed on CNBC.com. Our special coverage will begin Saturday at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Veiled bets

Berkshire requested anonymity for the trades because if the stock was known before the conglomerate finished building its position, others would plow into the stock as well, driving up the price, according to David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland.

Buffett is said to control roughly 90% of Berkshire’s massive stock portfolio, leaving his deputies Todd Combs and Ted Weschler the rest, Kass said.

While investment disclosures give no clue as to what the stock could be, Stone, Kass and other Buffett watchers believe it is a multibillion-dollar wager on a financial name.

That’s because the cost basis of banks, insurers and finance stocks owned by the company jumped by $3.59 billion in the second half of last year, the only category to increase, according to separate Berkshire filings.

At the same time, Berkshire exited financial names by dumping insurers Markel and Globe Life, leading investors to estimate that the wager could be as large as $4 billion or $5 billion through the end of 2023. It’s unknown whether that bet was on one company or spread over multiple firms in an industry.

Schwab or Morgan Stanley?

If it were a classic Buffett bet — a big stake in a single company —  that stock would have to be a large one, with perhaps a $100 billion market capitalization. Holdings of at least 5% in publicly traded American companies trigger disclosure requirements.

Investors have been speculating for months about what the stock could be. Finance covers all manner of companies, from retail lenders to Wall Street brokers, payments companies and various sectors of insurance.

Charles Schwab or Morgan Stanley could fit the bill, according to James Shanahan, an Edward Jones analyst who covers banks and Berkshire Hathaway.

“Schwab was beaten down during the regional banking crisis last year, they had an issue where retail investors were trading out of cash into higher-yielding investments,” Shanahan said. “Nobody wanted to own that name last year, so Buffett could’ve bought as much as he wanted.”

Other names that have been circulated — JPMorgan Chase or BlackRock, for example, are possible, but may make less sense given valuations or business mix. Truist and other higher-quality regional banks might also fit Buffett’s parameters, as well as insurer AIG, Shanahan said, though their market capitalizations are smaller.

More from Berkshire Hathaway’s Annual Meeting

Buffett & banks

Berkshire has owned financial names for decades, and Buffett has stepped in to inject capital — and confidence — into the industry on multiple occasions.

Buffett served as CEO of a scandal-stricken Salomon Brothers in the early 1990s to help turn the company around. He pumped $5 billion into Goldman Sachs in 2008 and another $5 billion into Bank of America in 2011, ultimately becoming the latter’s largest shareholder.

But after loading up on lenders in 2018, from universal banks like JPMorgan to regional lenders like PNC Financial and U.S. Bank, he deeply pared his exposure to the sector in 2020 on concerns that the coronavirus pandemic would punish the industry.

Since then, he and his deputies have mostly avoided adding to his finance stakes, besides modest positions in Citigroup and Capital One.

‘Fear is contagious’

Last May, Buffett told shareholders to expect more turbulence in banking. He said Berkshire could deploy more capital in the industry, if needed.

“The situation in banking is very similar to what it’s always been in banking, which is that fear is contagious,” Buffett said. “Historically, sometimes the fear was justified, sometimes it wasn’t.”

Wherever he placed his bet, the move will be seen as a boost to the company, perhaps even the sector, given Buffett’s track record of identifying value.

It’s unclear how long regulators will allow Berkshire to shield its moves.

“I’m hopeful he’ll reveal the name and talk about the strategy behind it,” Shanahan said. “The SEC’s patience can wear out, at some point it’ll look like Berkshire’s getting favorable treatment.”

— CNBC’s Yun Li contributed to this report.

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First Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting without Charlie Munger: What to expect from Warren Buffett

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Warren Buffett walks the floor and meets with Berkshire Hathaway shareholders ahead of their annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska on May 3rd, 2024. 

David A. Grogan

When Warren Buffett kicks off Berkshire Hathaway‘s annual shareholder meeting on Saturday, the absence of Charlie Munger will be on everyone’s mind.

Some 30,000 rapt shareholders are descending on Omaha for what’s been called “Woodstock for Capitalists.” Pandemic lockdown apart, it will be the first without Munger, Buffett’s longtime partner who passed away in November about a month shy of his 100th birthday.

“The meeting will only have one comedian up there” this year, said David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland and a Berkshire shareholder, who has attended more than 20 annual meetings. “There’ll be, let’s say, a more serious, less humorous background.”

The annual meeting will be exclusively broadcast on CNBC and livestreamed on CNBC.com. Our special coverage will begin Saturday at 9:30 a.m. ET. For the first time, Berkshire will broadcast its annual meeting movie that had previously always been reserved only for those in attendance in Omaha. Many speculate this year’s will be a tear-jerker tribute to Munger.

Vice Chairman of Non-Insurance Operations Greg Abel, Buffett’s designated successor, will fill Munger’s seat in the afternoon session, helping answer shareholder questions. Vice Chairman of Insurance Operations Ajit Jain will join Buffett, the CEO, and Abel in the morning session. Buffett has said they expect to field about 40 to 60 questions Saturday.

“The tone of the meeting is certainly going to be a lot different without Charlie,” said Steve Check, CEO of Check Capital Management and a longtime Berkshire shareholder. “He was the one that really made it funny. It’s getting closer and closer to the transition, so it’s good to see Ajit and Greg on the stage.”

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger at a press conference during the Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meeting, April 30, 2022.

CNBC

Munger’s investment philosophy rubbed off on Buffett early on, giving rise to the sprawling conglomerate worth $860 billion that Berkshire is today. Generations of investors also appreciated Munger’s trademark bluntness and humor, rare to come by on Wall Street.

If anything, the sea of Buffett admirers will cherish his folksy wisdom even more as the “Oracle of Omaha” turns 94 in less than four months.

Here are some of the big topics shareholders want Buffett to discuss:

  • Inflation: Price pressures have proved sticky lately. What impact is inflation having on Berkshire’s businesses? Which businesses are being hurt (and helped) the most?
  • Apple: Why did Berkshire trim its Apple stake in the fourth quarter? Investors will look for Buffett’s outlook on the tech stock given its challenges in China and recent news of a giant, $110-billion stock buyback.
  • Secret stock pick: Berkshire has been buying a financial stock for two quarters straight. What is it?
  • Record cash: Does Buffett plan to put his record level of cash to work?
  • A slowdown in buybacks: With Berkshire shares outperforming this year, will Buffett continue to slow down his own buyback program?
  • Life after Buffett: More details on Berkshire’s succession plan.

Macro commentary

The annual meeting comes at a tricky time for markets as a pickup in inflation puts the brakes on the Federal Reserve’s plan to cut interest rates this year. While the Berkshire CEO doesn’t make investment decisions based on daily headlines, investors still are eager to hear any market commentary and guidance from the protege of the father of value investing, Ben Graham.

“They don’t time their investments,” Kass said of Berkshire. “The economy goes through cycles. They totally ignore cycles. They invest for a long run, and they really ignore what pretty much what the Federal Reserve is doing. I believe that will be his answer.”

Apple

Shareholders may seek an explanation as to why Berkshire sold about 10 million Apple shares (1% of its massive stake) in the fourth quarter. At the end of 2023, Berkshire owned 905,560,000 shares of the iPhone maker, worth more than $174 billion and taking up more than 40% of the portfolio.

The move came as a surprise to many because Apple has been Buffett’s favorite stock for years, and he even called the tech giant his second-most important business after Berkshire’s cluster of insurers. What’s more, the last time Buffett trimmed this bet, he admitted it was “probably a mistake.’

Shares of the iPhone maker got a big boost Friday after the firm announced that its board had authorized $110 billion in share repurchases, the largest in company history. However, Apple posted a decline in overall sales and in iPhone sales.

Secret holding

There’s a small chance that Buffett will reveal the identity of the mystery bank stock that Berkshire has been buying for two quarters straight.

In the third and fourth quarters of 2023, Berkshire requested that the Securities and Exchange Commission keep the details of one or more of its stock holdings confidential. Many speculated that the secret purchase could be a bank stock as the conglomerate’s cost basis for “banks, insurance, and finance” equity holdings jumped by around $2.37 billion.

“He will comment as late as possible…. Charlie would be the only one that would let it slip once in a while. It’s not going to happen with Warren,” Check said.

Succession

Berkshire’s succession could be front and center at this meeting after Munger’s passing. Abel, became known as Buffett’s heir apparent in 2021 after Munger inadvertently made the revelation.

Abel has been overseeing a major portion of Berkshire’s sprawling empire, including energy, railroad and retail. Buffett revealed previously that Abel’s taken on most of the responsibilities at Berkshire.

Still, some questions remain as to who will be helping allocate capital at Berkshire, and the roles of Buffett’s investing managers Ted Weschler and Todd Combs, who is also the CEO of Geico.

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Influencer Tori Dunlap is spurring women to maximize their savings and invest in the stock market

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As Tiffany Mane read a personal finance book during her train ride to work, a woman sitting near her acknowledged that she, too, knew of the author. Shortly after, several bystanders began inquiring into its contents.

Mane was reading “Financial Feminist” by Tori Dunlap. The late-2022 release is one piece of the Her First $100K empire, a money-focused education platform targeted at women and other marginalized groups.

That commuting experience highlights the growing community built around Dunlap’s wisdom. And there’s a cyclical effect at play: Women utilize Dunlap’s resources to improve their financial lives, and then share the information with others.

“It really has changed my life,” said Mane, a 35-year-old human rights investigator in the Washington, D.C., area. “I realized there are so many women who don’t know this stuff and who don’t have the resources.”

Finance has historically been viewed as a man’s responsibility, creating a disparity within personal economics. New York Life found the average woman saved less than half a man did in 2022. A 2021 survey from NerdWallet showed women were less likely to be invested in the stock market than their male counterparts.

But Dunlap and her growing fanbase are looking to change that.

Dunlap herself rose to prominence by sharing her journey to save $100,000 by 25 years old. She was inspired to document this goal after finding that many existing resources didn’t adequately take into account the unique experiences of marginalized groups.

In Dunlap’s words, a lot of what was out there felt “bro-y” and out of touch with a young woman’s experience. She said society has largely characterized spending by women as “frivolous,” creating a critical culture for those seeking relatable financial advice.

“People want to feel seen and they want to feel heard,” Dunlap said. “This kind of identity-focused personal finance is 100% necessary, and is the future of personal finance.”

‘Finance is personal’

What began as a side hustle on top of a marketing job has grown to a multi-platform product since Dunlap took the leap to run Her First $100K full time in 2019. Her “Financial Feminist” book sold more than 150,000 copies in its first year in print. Dunlap’s podcast of the same name, which typically has one full and one mini episode out per week, touches on topics such as homeownership and recession planning.

Both the Instagram and TikTok accounts for Her First $100K have amassed at least 2 million followers. A Facebook group named after the book has swelled to more than 100,000 members, where Mane and others converse about issues that impact their money and careers.

In that group, members share financial wins and trade advice on topics like which banks or credit cards to use. Some ask anonymous questions as they venture into sensitive subjects such as debt or the economic reality of divorce. Members have also organized virtual book clubs with others in the group to continue the conversation.

Dunlap said she isn’t surprised that the space has become meaningful to members in a society where women are unfairly criticized for their financial choices. She’s also been proud to see a culture free of judgment or shame as participants offer one another validation and feedback.

Tori Dunlap teaching a money workshop.

Courtesy Karya Schanilec

Fans said they appreciate Dunlap’s two-fold approach to financial education. She offers actionable steps to improve their economic lives, they say, while also being cognizant of systematic barriers that make it harder for women and other marginalized groups to build wealth.

Specialized advice can benefit women, as research shows they have less confidence in topics tied to money than men, according to Annamaria Lusardi, senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

These niche resources would better resonate because they can touch on topics or examples that are disproportionately relevant to the specific population, said Lusardi, who is also founder of the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center. For women, she said one area of emphasis could be on the economics of having or raising children.

“Finance is personal,” Lusardi said. “As a woman, I feel like I have different needs, have different circumstances. And so I want things more targeted to me.”

A ‘sisterhood’

For those who have engaged with Dunlap’s work and the virtual community, they’ve seen how the advice has changed their financial lives – and now feel inspired to pay it forward. In the words of Mane, the Facebook group feels like being part of a “sisterhood.”

Through Dunlap’s advice and subsequent research, Mane has implemented a plan for budgeting and opened a high-yield savings account. She also opened a Roth individual retirement account, which grows free of taxes, and she is beginning Dunlap’s educational program focused on investing called Stock Market School.

As a result, Mane, a child of immigrants who grew up below the poverty line, said she’s never felt so economically stable. Her upcoming wedding will be paid for in cash, a financial milestone she never thought would be possible.

Mane has gifted the book to several women in her life. The human rights investigator has a copy in her office for curious colleagues, often explaining what it is and has meant to her. Beyond the Facebook group, she’s started passing down tidbits of wisdom to her nieces.

Thousands of miles away, Tierney Barker is seeing parallel effects. The 32-year-old Canadian first found Her First $100K’s resources on budget tracking and debt consolidation.

One of the travel agent’s first big changes was implementing a savings “bucket” strategy — in which money is earmarked for living expenses, goals and fun. Barker has also been finding time to review her finances on a regular basis. Similar to Mane, she opened the Canadian equivalent of a high-yield savings account.

After seeing the impact on her own life, Barker recommended the book to others and requested its addition to her local library in British Columbia. Barker also found herself better equipped to discuss money with other women, something that once felt like a taboo topic that should be mostly reserved for men.

“It’s been easier to talk about it and to be open about it,” Barker said, adding that having the resources is “empowering.”

While Dunlap has been proud to see individuals benefiting from this advice and sharing it with others, she thinks that the work isn’t done.

She said the systematic barriers that disproportionately hurt women and minorities in the business world remain. After the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Dunlap said it’s more important than ever to push for social equity — including through economics and finance.

“I don’t believe we have any sort of equality for any marginalized group until we have financial equality,” she said. “A financial education is our best form of protest as women.”

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