Profits to Bank On
12/27/2011 | | bad loans, Bank earnings, Bank lending, Bank Profits, Elliot's Brief Blog, Loan balances, Loan loss reserves, Q3'11
I am sure you will be delighted to learn that US banks earned profits of $35 billion in Q3 ’11, their best showing since before the recession. The up-tick is primarily due to banks putting aside less to cover bad loans, not due to interest from new ones; bank loan balances increased by just $21.8 billion, or 0.3%. Banks with assets greater than $10 billion accounted for 85% of earnings, yet comprise 1.5% of all banks.