Financials sector valuation
The U.S. financials sector trades at 16.88 times trailing earnings and 2.56 times book value. The second of those is higher than 91% of its readings since 1979.
It also shows an EV/EBITDA of 19.59, which you should ignore. This page is about which of the six measures mean anything for a bank, and which of them quietly do not.
United States The four headline readings below are for the U.S. financials sector. The same six measures for the global and global ex-U.S. financials sectors are in the table that follows.
| Measure | United States | Global | Global ex-U.S. | Global ex-U.S. ex-China | U.S. premium |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trailing P/E | 16.88 | 13.34 | 11.34 | 13.73 | +49% |
| Forward P/E | 15.23 | 13.09 | 11.71 | — | +30% |
| CAPE | 21.41 | 18.19 | 16.15 | 22.60 | +33% |
| EV/EBITDA | 19.59 | 17.28 | 15.72 | 16.00 | +25% |
| Price to book | 2.56 | — | — | — | — |
| Dividend yield | 1.53% | — | — | — | — |
Global covers developed markets, emerging markets and the United States. Global ex-U.S. is the same universe with the United States removed, and still includes both developed and emerging markets. Excluding China as well moves the ex-U.S. reading by 40% in this sector, which is why that column is shown here; forward P/E is not published for it. Dividend yield and price to book are published for the U.S. sectors only. Free to reuse with attribution.
Trailing P/E and CAPE on one axis, drawn logarithmically so that the 130.1 reading of September 1987 does not flatten everything else. Both are multiples of earnings — and for this sector both are the second-best measure, for the reason set out below.
The same four measures, side by side in each market published. The American premium here is persistent rather than recent, and it is narrower on EV/EBITDA than on earnings.
| Year | Trailing P/E | CAPE |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 18.47 | 21.69 |
| 2024 | 16.75 | 20.74 |
| 2023 | 14.68 | 17.41 |
| 2022 | 14.84 | 17.21 |
| 2021 | 11.38 | 23.22 |
| 2020 | 16.42 | 21.30 |
| 2019 | 14.22 | 24.99 |
| 2018 | 13.10 | 26.68 |
| 2017 | 19.97 | 37.42 |
| 2016 | 18.69 | 27.12 |
The full monthly history from 1979, the price-to-book series, and the global and global ex-U.S. figures are available to subscribers.
United States, Aug 2026
U.S. sector against its own history
Why EV/EBITDA does not work here
Enterprise value adds debt to market capitalisation, on the reasoning that a buyer of the whole company inherits its borrowings. EBITDA then measures earnings before the cost of servicing them. For an industrial business that is a sensible pairing.
For a bank it is not. Borrowing is not how a bank finances its operations; borrowing is the operation. Deposits are liabilities. Interest is simultaneously the main revenue and the main cost. Stripping interest out of earnings while adding debt to the price produces a number that is arithmetically defined and economically meaningless.
We publish it because the series exists, because the same calculation is applied to all eleven sectors without exception, and because people ask for it. It should not drive a decision about this sector, and the same caution applies to the global and global ex-U.S. columns.
Price to book is the measure that survives
A bank's assets are financial instruments, marked closer to their market value than the factories and brands on an industrial balance sheet. Book value therefore means more here than almost anywhere else, and the ratio of price to book is the sector's most useful single number.
It currently stands at 2.56, against a median of 1.43 across 561 months. Only the remainder above 91% were more expensive. The record is 3.37, in April 1999.
The low is the more instructive figure: 0.59, in February 2009 — the market pricing the sector well below the stated value of its own assets, which is a statement about whether those assets were worth what the balance sheet said.
One limitation, stated plainly. Price to book is published for the U.S. sectors only. The measure that works best for banks is the one you cannot use to compare markets; internationally you have P/E, forward P/E and CAPE, and you have to accept their limits.
China is most of the international discount
Chinese banks trade at low multiples and they are a large part of the non-U.S. sector, which makes the benchmark this page compares against unusually sensitive to whether they are in it.
Against the world excluding the United States, the American premium on trailing earnings is +49%. Against the world excluding the United States and China, it is +23%. On CAPE the same swap moves the ex-U.S. reading from 16.15 to 22.60.
Neither benchmark is the right one in the abstract. An investor with a global mandate is comparing against the first; an investor whose mandate excludes China is comparing against the second, and would reach a materially different conclusion about how expensive American banks are. Both columns are published above for that reason.
Note that EV/EBITDA barely moves between the two — which, for the reasons set out at the top of this page, is not the reassurance it looks like.
Three growth rates, three different stories
Aggregate U.S. financials earnings have grown at 5.3% a year over five years. Over ten years the rate is 9.8%. Over the last twelve months it is 17.8%.
The page's job is to leave those standing next to each other rather than choosing one. A sector at the 79th percentile of its own P/E history whose five-year rate sits below its ten-year one is a different proposition from one that has compounded steadily, and the distinction is the whole reason all three figures are published.
A note on how the longer rates are measured, because this sector is the reason for it. Aggregate financials earnings jumped in 2021 as the loan-loss reserves built in 2020 were released, so a five-year rate measured from that single month would compare today against an artificial peak and report almost no growth at all. The rates above compare the average of twelve months at each end instead.
Real estate is not in this history
Real estate was separated from financials as a sector in its own right. Our historic financials series is calculated on financials companies only, with real estate excluded across the whole history rather than from the separation date forward.
The series here is therefore internally consistent but is not the old combined sector, and adding it back to our real estate figures would not reproduce what was published before the split. Anyone splicing this onto an older financials series from another source should know that the two are not continuous.
Choosing a measure
No single ratio answers every question about a sector. Each of these pages covers the same eleven sectors — what changes is the question the measure is good at, and how far the coverage reaches.
| Measure | The question it answers | Why that one |
|---|---|---|
| EV/EBITDA | How does one sector compare across markets? | Sits above tax and debt, so it survives crossing borders. The only measure here that makes an international sector comparison sound. |
| P/E and earnings | How fast are a sector’s earnings growing? | Trailing and forward multiples with the earnings behind them, so the multiple and its denominator can be read together. |
| CAPE | Is a sector expensive against its own history? | Averages a decade of real earnings, which smooths the cycle out of the denominator. |
| Price to book | What is the market paying for the assets? | Works where earnings-based measures break down — asset-heavy sectors, and banks in particular. U.S. sectors only. |
| Dividend yield | Which sectors pay, and how much? | Income rather than valuation, but it moves inversely with price and is read alongside the multiples. U.S. sectors only. |
Communication Services · Consumer Discretionary · Consumer Staples · Energy · Health Care · Industrials · Technology · Materials · Real Estate · Utilities
All eleven side by side: sector valuations. To compare them on one measure: P/E and earnings · CAPE ratios · EV/EBITDA · Dividend yields · Price to book.
Where this data is used
Some examples. Siblis valuation data appears in peer-reviewed journals, central bank publications and the financial press.
The whole financials history, every trading day
This page publishes ten year-ends and the current reading. The database carries every month back to 1979, for all eleven sectors and every market.
How this is calculated
Every ratio is calculated on the aggregate: the total market capitalisation of the sector's constituents divided by their aggregate earnings, book value or EBITDA, rather than as an average of the constituents' own ratios.
- Trailing P/E — Aggregate normalised net income over the previous twelve months. Major purely accounting gains and losses are removed.
- Forward P/E — Consensus estimates for the next twelve months, aggregated the same way.
- CAPE — Price divided by the average of ten years of inflation-adjusted aggregate earnings.
- Price to book — Aggregate market capitalisation over aggregate book value. Published for the U.S. sectors only.
- Earnings growth — Calculated on aggregate sector earnings, not a per-share figure, so it is unaffected by buybacks. The one-year figure compares two month-ends. Rates over five years and longer compare the average of the twelve months at each end, so that one unusual month at the start does not set the whole rate — this sector's earnings spiked in 2021 on reserve releases, and a five-year rate anchored on that single month would describe the spike rather than the sector.
- Financials — Calculated on financials companies only. Real estate is excluded across the whole history, not only after the two sectors were separated.
- Coverage — U.S. series from 1979; global and global ex-U.S. from 1997. The three are comparable as levels but not as history, because they do not span the same period.
- Revisions — Figures are point-in-time. If a company later restates its results, the historic reading is left exactly as first published.
Cite this page
Siblis Research. (2026). Financials sector P/E, CAPE and price to book — U.S. and global [Data set]. Retrieved 31 August 2026, from siblisresearch.com/data/financials-sector-valuation/
@misc{siblis_financials_sector_valuation,
title={Financials sector P/E, CAPE and price to book — U.S. and global}, author={{Siblis Research}},
year={2026}, url={https://siblisresearch.com/data/financials-sector-valuation/},
urldate={2026-08-31}} Charts on this page may be reproduced free of charge with attribution to Siblis Research and a link to this page.