---
title: "Total Borrowings: definition, formula, and thresholds"
description: "Total borrowings are a bank's wholesale, non-deposit funding: Federal Home Loan Bank advances, fed funds purchased, repurchase agreements, and subordinated debt. They supplement deposits but are costlier and more confidence-sensitive."
canonical_url: https://www.bankregreports.com/glossary/total-borrowings/
source: BankRegReports
category: "Liquidity & Balance Sheet"
units: "$"
schedule: "Schedule RC"
---

# Total Borrowings

> Total borrowings are a bank's wholesale, non-deposit funding: Federal Home Loan Bank advances, fed funds purchased, repurchase agreements, and subordinated debt. They supplement deposits but are costlier and more confidence-sensitive.

## Formula

```
Total Borrowings = FHLB Advances + Fed Funds Purchased + Repos + Subordinated Debt + Other Borrowings
```

Reported across the liabilities section of Schedule RC. Borrowings let a bank fund growth beyond its deposit base, but they reprice with the market and, in stress, can be pulled or require more collateral, unlike sticky core deposits.

## Why it matters

Reliance on borrowings is a key liquidity signal. A spike in FHLB advances often marks a bank plugging a deposit shortfall, and heavy short-term wholesale funding is a vulnerability when confidence wavers, borrowed money leaves faster than relationship deposits.

## How to read it

Read borrowings as a share of assets and watch the trend. A modest, term-matched borrowing book is normal balance-sheet management; a rapid rise in short-term advances, especially alongside deposit outflows, is a classic liquidity-stress tell.

## Thresholds

| Range | Reading | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Low / term-matched | Strong | Minimal wholesale reliance, well structured. |
| Moderate | Adequate | Normal use of borrowings to manage the balance sheet. |
| Rising short-term | Watch | Growing reliance on wholesale funding. |
| Heavy / replacing deposits | Concern | Borrowings filling a deposit gap; liquidity pressure. |


## Worked example

A bank that lost $200 million of deposits and replaced them with $200 million of FHLB advances keeps its assets funded: but it has swapped sticky, cheap deposits for rate-sensitive wholesale money, a shift visible in a jumping borrowings line and a rising cost of funds.

## Questions

### What are FHLB advances?

Federal Home Loan Bank advances are collateralized loans from the regional FHLBs to member banks. They are a common, reliable wholesale funding source, but a sharp rise often signals a bank is replacing lost deposits.

### Why are borrowings riskier than deposits?

Wholesale borrowings reprice with the market, can require additional collateral, and may not roll over in stress. Core deposits are cheaper and stickier, so heavy borrowing reliance raises both cost and liquidity risk.

## Sources

- [FFIEC Call Report Schedule RC (Balance Sheet, Borrowings)](https://www.ffiec.gov/sites/default/files/data/reporting-forms/FFIEC031_FFIEC041_202606_i.pdf) (PDF)

## Related metrics

- [Total Deposits](https://www.bankregreports.com/glossary/total-deposits/): Total deposits is the sum of all money customers have placed with a bank (checking, savings, money market, and time deposits) across domestic and foreign offices. It is a bank's primary and cheapest source of funding.
- [Core Deposits](https://www.bankregreports.com/glossary/core-deposits/): Core deposits are a bank's stable, relationship-based funding (checking, savings, and smaller time deposits) excluding rate-sensitive jumbo CDs and brokered money. They are the cheapest and stickiest funding a bank has.
- [Cost of Funds](https://www.bankregreports.com/glossary/cost-of-funds/): Cost of funds is the interest rate a bank pays, on average, for the money it lends and invests: annualized interest expense divided by average funding from deposits and borrowings. It is the bank's own cost of money and the expense side of net interest margin.
- [Brokered Deposits](https://www.bankregreports.com/glossary/brokered-deposits/): Brokered deposits are deposits a bank obtains through a deposit broker, a third party that places its customers' money at the bank, instead of directly from depositors. The brokered deposits ratio is brokered deposits divided by total deposits; heavy reliance on them is a supervisory red flag because the money is rate-sensitive and can leave quickly.

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