Harry Terris

Interchange has become an ever-more important foundation for credit card lenders as loan portfolios tread water. This interactive graphic shows revenue yields and transaction volume data for large issuers.

Credit card collection efforts appear to be more successful than before the recession, controversial practices notwithstanding. This interactive graphic shows recovery and chargeoff data for large lenders.

It's hard for credit card issuers to expand lending when customers keep a lid on their bills the way they are these days.

The portion of balances that credit cardholders paid off climbed again in August in a good sign for defaults but a bad one for portfolio growth. This interactive graphic shows key performance measures at the Big Six.

Banks as a whole continue to invest heavily in bonds issued by Fannie and Freddie, but strategic orientations vary widely across individual companies. Use this interactive graphic to see portfolio composition for big holding companies.

Credit card lenders have been giving slack on lines, but it hasn't been coming from the Big Three. Use this interactive graphic to see line and utilization trends at TD Bank on up.

Few banks with trust-preferred debt would fall below the Basel III capital minimum without the securities. Many are using the phase-out as an opportunity to retire the high-cost funding.

The selloff in Treasuries that extended through much of this month underscores the dangers of adding exposure to long-dated bonds, but both large and small banks have been doing just that in recent quarters. Use this interactive graphic to examine the maturity profiles holding companies with at least $1 billion in assets.

Chargeoff rates ticked up at four of the six largest issuers in July from the previous month. Delinquencies held steady, however, bucking the typical seasonal increase, and writeoffs appear set to subside in the coming months.

Low interest rates have allowed banks of all sizes to rotate out of time deposits and build up transaction accounts, but key differences in funding profiles persist across asset classes.

Loan demand is soft and competition for borrowers is intense, creating tension between building portfolios and sustaining yields. Some banks have posted leaps in volume just to tread water in profitability.

Stories about buyout groups dissolving and heavy-handed regulation make private equity sound like the dog that never barked in banking. But such firms have notched hundreds of deals since the crisis, and the rollup machines they've created are poised to keep going.

Across the industry, the formation of new credit problems has fallen to pre-recession levels. Assets continued to sour at a troubling pace at some banks in the second quarter of 2012, however.

Revenue margins have dipped at some major credit card issuers in recent months, but, by and large, they have emerged intact from a bruising economic downturn and a sea change in regulation.

The yield curve flattened and it showed in margins among the first wave of banks to post second quarter results. But a sizeable group used some remaining levers – like the retirement of trust-preferred securities – to buck the trend.

Dozens of small banks have substantially increased commercial and industrial lending over the past few years. Supervisors are worried that some may be chasing unfamiliar business down a blind alley.

Refinancing activity continued to climb over the last three months, as did the gap between consumer and secondary market prices. Expect banks to report another quarter of strong mortgage revenues in the coming weeks.

Growth in commercial and industrial loans fell to the slowest pace in a year during the period, according to preliminary data. But the increase was still healthy enough to offset contractions in other loan categories, and help drive an expansion in balance sheets.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Diamond in the Rough: It has been a bad run for bank bosses with homophones for names, but especially for former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond, who resigned early today over the Libor scandal. Diamond said: "The external pressure placed on Barclays has reached a level that risks damaging the franchise. I cannot let that happen." The Journal said Diamond's exit could portend a turn away from his focus on expanding the company's capital markets business, which absorbed the North American operations of Lehman Brothers after that firm collapsed in 2008. The question of who to name as a successor will hinge in part on "whether the bank's board wants to continue with Mr. Diamond's drive to build out Barclays's investment banking arm. His departure could herald the splitting off or winding down of the unit as the bank looks to cut costs and adapt to tougher regulations, analysts say. The U.K. is set to pass laws in 2015 forcing banks to ring-fence their retail banking divisions from investment banking activities—a move that could drive up funding costs." Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times

In a slow stretch for issuance of bank shares, companies looking to raise capital for acquisitions have come to the fore in offerings that have performed relatively well.