While housing and autos are struggling, albeit for very different reasons, banks are doing splendidly! Net interest margin, or the difference between what banks lend and borrow at rose to 3.22 percentage points, the highest since 13Q4. Partly as a result, ROA (return on assets) rose to 1.14%, ROE (return on equity) increased to 10.11%, and quarterly profits for all 5,787 FDIC insured institutions rose 10.7% Y-o-Y to $48.3 billion.