As delinquency worsened for the 13th consecutive quarter at U.S. banks and the number of troubled institutions reached a record high, the chief of the federal agency that insures deposits said the overall economy is showing signs of improvement. She noted that bank-sector performance generally lags the economy.
Financial institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation held $2.012 trillion in residential assets as of June 30, lower than $2.045 trillion on March 31 and $2.154 trillion a year earlier, according to the FDIC quarterly banking profile released today. Home-equity line-of-credit holdings were $0.673 trillion, easing off of $0.674.2 trillion three months earlier and $0.647 trillion a year earlier.
In addition, institutions serviced or were obligated to recourse on $1.222 trillion in one- to four-unit securitized loans as of June 30, down from $1.235 trillion on March 31. HELOCs in the category fell slightly to $0.007 trillion.
Residential delinquency of at least 30 days was 9.77 percent, while HELOC delinquency fell for the first time in three years to 2.97 percent. Overall bank delinquency rose for the 13th consecutive quarter.
Losses at FDIC-insured banks amounted to $3.7 billion in the second quarter.
Earnings deteriorated substantially from $4.8 billion in profits the sector earned during the second-quarter 2008.
Impacting the latest period were $5.5 billion in special FDIC assessments and $4.1 billion in one-time losses and other items. Loan loss provisions increased $16.5 billion from last year to $66.9 billion, and $48.9 billion in uncollectible loans were charged off.
| “The difficult and necessary process of recognizing loan losses and cleaning up balance sheets continues to be reflected in the industry’s bottom line,” FDICÂ Chairman Sheila Bair said in the statement.
Bair pointed to evidence that the U.S. economy is beginning to grow again, and noted that performance in the banking sector historically lags the overall economy. The FDIC said the data reflected 8,195 insured institutions, down from 8,247 in the first quarter. Banks acquired by other banks totaled 39 in the second quarter, while 24 firms failed and 12 new charters were created. There were 416 problem institutions with $299.8 billion in assets at the end of the quarter, rising from 305 problem banks with $220.0 billion in assets at the beginning. “This is the largest number of ‘problem’ institutions since June 30, 1994, and the largest amount of assets on the list since Dec.31, 1993,” the report said. |
Sheila Bair at press conference today |
