Securities-Based Loans at 7 Banks and Brokers Total $202 Billion in Q3 2026 10-Qs, Up 22% Year to Date

The balances, firm by firm

A securities-based line of credit (SBLOC, also called a pledged asset line) lets a client borrow against stocks, bonds and funds held in a brokerage account without selling them. The banks book it as consumer or wealth-management lending, so it appears in each firm's loan tables. We took the Q3 2026 10-Q of each firm and read the September 30, 2026 balance and the December 31, 2025 comparative column. Our earlier page on Schwab's pledged asset line goes deep on Schwab, Morgan Stanley, Raymond James and Stifel; this page adds Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Ameriprise and puts the rules, the rates and a call example beside them.

Four readings, each limited to what the filings show.

• Definitions differ. Bank of America's $67.6 billion is global and comes from a credit-quality note; its consumer-loan footnote shows $64.3 billion in the United States. Wells Fargo's line includes margin loans. Morgan Stanley's line includes other lending, and Raymond James reports to June 30. We left the last two out of the seven-firm sum for that reason.
• Schwab is the outlier, and it is not alone. Schwab's $10.7 billion increase is the largest of the seven, but Wells Fargo added $8.0 billion and Bank of America $9.6 billion on a larger base (our arithmetic). Wells Fargo's 10-Q ties the rise in consumer loans to “an increase in securities-based lending,” and Bank of America's says its direct/indirect consumer portfolio grew $5.2 billion in nine months on securities-based lending.
• Who is missing. Fidelity lends through U.S. Bank and Leader Bank, so its clients' lines are on those banks' books, and JPMorgan gives no amount in the 10-Q text we read.
• What the table does not show. None of these filings says what clients borrowed for, how many borrow, or how close any portfolio is to a call. A balance measures the lender's exposure, not borrower stress.

What the 10-Qs say about losses

Only Schwab and Raymond James publish a past-due table for these loans. The others describe the risk in words.

Goldman Sachs changed its method in the first quarter of 2026 and says that, applied to December 2025, it would have moved $4.54 billion of securities-based loans from “other metrics” to investment grade, so the investment-grade share at the two dates is not comparable. The low loss figures describe the lender's position. They say little about a borrower, whose securities are sold first.

What the SEC and FINRA tell borrowers

The Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy and FINRA issued a joint investor alert on SBLOCs on December 21, 2015 (retrieved from the Internet Archive's capture of the SEC page). It is still the main regulator guidance on the product. Its warnings that matter most for a $250,000-plus investor:

• Demand loan. “SBLOCs are classified as demand loans, which means lenders may call the loan at any time.”
• The call. A maintenance call tells you to post collateral or repay “within a specified period (typically two or three days).” If you cannot, the firm can sell your securities.
• No notice on which securities. “Lenders often are permitted to make these decisions without giving you any notice.” Sales can create capital gains tax.
• How much to borrow. “Typical advance rates range from 50-65 percent for equities, 65-80 percent for corporate bonds and 95 percent for U.S. Treasuries.” The alert advises that if you go ahead you “consider taking out less than the maximum amount of credit offered to you.”
• Who profits. “Some firms pay salespersons on a quarterly basis depending on how much money you have borrowed on the line of credit.” The firm also keeps earning fees on the full account value when you borrow instead of selling.
• Who lends. “Many brokerage firms offering SBLOCs do so through a bank affiliate,” so your broker may not know how the program works.

The alert is more than ten years old and refers to LIBOR, which has since been replaced by SOFR in the pages we read. FINRA's current investor insight on the product, saved on our earlier page, repeats the two-or-three-day call period and SOFR pricing.

Regulation U: why these loans cannot buy securities

The Federal Reserve's Regulation U, 12 CFR part 221, is the rule behind the “purpose” language in every SBLOC contract. We read the text in the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (version of November 1, 2026).

• Definition. Section 221.2: “Purpose credit is any credit for the purpose, whether immediate, incidental, or ultimate, of buying or carrying margin stock.” Margin stock includes any equity security registered or having unlisted trading privileges on a national securities exchange, so listed stocks and listed REIT shares count.
• The cap. Section 221.3(a)(1) bars a lender from extending purpose credit secured by margin stock above the maximum loan value of the collateral, and section 221.7(a) says: “The maximum loan value of any margin stock is fifty per cent of its current market value.”
• The purpose statement. Section 221.3(c)(1)(i): when a bank extends credit secured by margin stock above $100,000, it must have the customer sign Form FR U-1.
• Mixed loans. Section 221.3(d)(4): a lender that extends purpose credit and non-purpose credit to the same customer must treat them as two separate loans.

Our reading, not a legal opinion: an SBLOC is written as non-purpose credit, so the 50% ceiling is not what sets its advance rate (the alert says advance rates “vary by institution”), and the firm's own underwriting decides it. In exchange the contract bans buying securities. Schwab says proceeds “may not be used to purchase securities.” Fidelity says “funds cannot be used for the purchase of investments, such as stocks, bonds, or mutual funds.” Stifel and Wells Fargo Advisors bar buying securities or margin stock too. For a reader who wants to put a line into a private real estate offering, that wording needs to be asked about before drawing; using the money for a rental property or a tax bill is a different use, and the firms' own pages list both.

What lenders publish about rates and terms

Pages are dated by the day we read them. Rates move with SOFR and firms change spreads without notice.

Three details are worth reading twice. Schwab prices by the loan value of the collateral, Fidelity by the size of the line, so the same portfolio can land in different tiers. Wells Fargo's advance rates may be “adjusted by the lender at any time and without prior notice,” and its page says securities “may be sold, without notification, to satisfy the obligation.” And Schwab, Morgan Stanley and Stifel each say the lender can call the line: Schwab's bank “may demand full repayment at any time for any reason or no reason,” Morgan Stanley “reserves the right to call securities based loans at any time and for any reason,” and Stifel calls its line a “full recourse, demand loan” that “can be called at any time.”

A $1,000,000 portfolio and a 30% fall (our arithmetic)

Every input below is an assumption of ours, except the 50% to 65% equity advance range from the SEC and FINRA alert and the rate tiers from Schwab and Fidelity. The portfolio is diversified equities, and the advance rate is the lender's number for your securities, not a constant.

How to read it: the call point is the draw divided by the advance rate. The alert's advice to take less than the maximum is arithmetic: a draw at the limit has no cushion, and a draw at 80% of a 50% limit tolerates a 20% fall. Selling securities to cure a call is partly self-defeating, because each dollar sold lowers the limit as well as the loan; in the $400,000 case the lender would need to sell $100,000 to bring the loan to $300,000 against $600,000 of securities at a 50% advance rate.

Interest on the $400,000 draw, using the SOFR rate implied by Schwab's table (APR minus spread, 3.95% as of 11/02/2026) and assuming a $500,000 limit: Schwab's $500,000 to under $1,000,000 tier is SOFR + 3.40%, which is 7.35%, or $29,400 a year before any discount; Fidelity's $500,000 - $999,999 tier is SOFR + 2.85%, which is 6.80%, or $27,200 a year. Each 1.00 point of SOFR adds $4,000 a year. Fidelity says its SOFR index moves daily and Schwab says its APR may change weekly, so the real gap will move. A sale to meet a call can create a taxable gain that depends on your cost basis; we do not model it.

What a reader can do with this

• Ask for the advance rate on your own securities in writing, not the firm's average, and ask what changes it. Wells Fargo says it may change at any time without prior notice.
• Compute your call point before you draw: draw divided by advance rate, then the share of your portfolio that is one stock or one sector. The alert warns that a concentrated portfolio can fall faster than the market.
• Ask who can call the line and on what notice. Three of the five firms we read say any time. The alert's typical cure period is two or three days.
• Ask how the rate is set and whether the quote includes discounts. Schwab's table leaves out a 0.25% to 1.00% discount; Fidelity's spread is by line size.
• Ask what the money may buy. If you plan to put it into a listed or private real estate offering, the contracts we read bar buying securities, and Regulation U treats a loan to buy listed stock as purpose credit.
• Compare it with other borrowing against property. Our pages on a HELOC on an investment property and on portfolio loans for investment property in HMDA data cover lenders that underwrite the property, and our 1031 exchange timeline covers the deadlines an exchange has, which a line of credit does not change.
• Do not count on the line in a stress year. A lender that can call at any time may be least flexible when prices are falling.

This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.

If you are weighing a line against your own holdings, or a call would force a sale in a taxable account, a second opinion on your numbers may help.

FAQ

Sources: Forms 10-Q for September 30, 2026 of Bank of America (0000070858-26-000548), Charles Schwab (0000316709-26-000038; 0000316709-25-000051), Citigroup (0000831001-26-000056), Wells Fargo (0000072971-26-000327), Goldman Sachs (0000886982-26-000532), Ameriprise (0000820027-26-000054), JPMorgan Chase (0001628280-26-069523), Morgan Stanley (0000895421-26-000293), Stifel (0001193125-26-446268) and Raymond James for June 30, 2026 (0000720005-26-000070); Charles Schwab Form 10-K for 2025 (0000316709-26-000009); the SEC Office of Investor Education and Advocacy and FINRA, “Investor Alert: Securities-Backed Lines of Credit,” December 21, 2015 (Investor.gov, Internet Archive capture); 12 CFR 221.2, 221.3 and 221.7 (eCFR, version of November 1, 2026); the Schwab Pledged Asset Line pages, Morgan Stanley's Liquidity Access Line page and Stifel's private client lending page, retrieved November 9, 2026; Fidelity's securities backed line of credit page (Internet Archive capture of October 12, 2026); and Wells Fargo Advisors' securities-based lending page, retrieved November 13, 2026.