Just when the market's nervousness over New York Community Bancorp has started to die down, S&P Global Ratings lowered its outlook on five lenders to negative from stable, citing their exposure to the commercial real estate sector. At the same time, it affirmed its ratings on these five banks, "reflecting some mitigating factors, including solid underwriting track records and limited deterioration in asset quality."

The five are First Commonwealth Financial, M&T Bank, Synovus Financial, Trustmark and Valley National Bancorp, which have "some of the highest exposures" to commercial real estate loans among the banks it rates, the rating agency said.

CRE loans made up between roughly 25% and 55% of the loans of each these banks at year-end 2023, and well exceeded their Tier 1 capital, in some cases by several multiples, it said, also noting that most of these banks have higher-than-peer exposures to loans on office properties as well as sizable multifamily or construction exposures, which could be affected by the price pressures that higher interest rates have put on many property types.