Commercial Banks Set $52 Billion Profit Record Last Year, FDIC Says

The banking industry earned a record $52.4 billion last year, although losses on consumer loans continued to grow.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Thursday that the nation's 9,528 commercial banks earned $13.7 billion in the fourth quarter, up 14.5% from the same period a year ago.

For the year, profits rose 7.5% despite the $650 million banks paid to help rescue the Savings Association Insurance Fund.

Profits were driven by noninterest income from fees and service charges, which increased 13.5% in 1996 to $93.6 billion. Interest income rose to $162.8 billion, but at half the rate of noninterest income.

Despite the record profits, FDIC Chairman Ricki Helfer described as "worrisome" the yearend statistics on consumer loans, particularly credit card loans.

Net loan losses rose to $15.5 billion, a 27% increase from 1995. Credit card loan writeoffs accounted for $9.5 billion of that total.

"We have seen both delinquent and noncurrent consumer loans increase at the same time that chargeoffs have risen dramatically," Ms. Helfer said. "Chargeoff rates are approaching the levels reached in the last recession."

Commercial banks wrote off 2.29% of their consumer loans, compared with 1.73% in 1995. Credit card writeoffs amounted to 4.37% in 1996, up from 3.4% the previous year. Writeoffs reached 4.72% in the fourth quarter.

The doubling of credit card loans in the past four years and rising personal bankruptcy filings only exacerbate concern, Ms. Helfer said.

Ms. Helfer declined to say whether banks should tighten their credit card lending standards more, but she cautioned that banks must be "very careful" in making assumptions about a very unpredictable line of business. Further, she warned against underestimating risk caused by liabilities from credit card loans that have been securitized.

Not all loan categories performed poorly. Commercial and industrial loans rose 7.3% to $710 billion, and real estate loans jumped 5.5% to $1.1 trillion.

Average return on investment approached record levels, rising to 1.19% in 1996 from 1.17% in 1995. Nearly 70% of banks equaled or surpassed the traditional benchmark 1% ROA.

The industry's asset growth slowed for the second year in a row, increasing 6.2% to $266 billion in 1996. Assets had grown at annual rates of 7.5% and 8.2% in the two prior years. Ms. Helfer described that as "probably a good sign" considering that rapid asset growth in the late 1980s and early 1990s foreshadowed industry downturns.

The bank deposit insurance fund topped $2 trillion for the first time and reached reserves of $1.34 for every $100 of insured deposits at the end of 1996. After a $4.5 billion capitalization in October, the thrift fund achieved reserves of $1.30 for every $100 at the end of 1996, versus 55 cents per $100 six months earlier.

A slowdown in merger activity and rising numbers of new banks caused the smallest quarterly decline in commercial banks in 11 years, according to the FDIC. Only five banks and one thrift failed in 1996, the fewest since 1972.

Echoing recently released figures by the Office of Thrift Supervision, the FDIC reported healthy thrift profits, too. The nation's 1,924 savings institutions earned $7 billion in 1996 despite spending $3.5 billion to capitalize the thrift fund.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER