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FirstMerit Corp., which has spent a year of working through loan problems, said its credit quality showed signs of stabilizing in the second quarter.
The $10.4 billion-asset Akron company reported Tuesday that its net chargeoff rate and its provision for loan losses dropped from a year earlier.
(Comparisons with the first quarter are difficult, because FirstMerit sold a large portion of its problem credits in the fourth and first quarters as part of an overhaul of its loan portfolio.)
Second-quarter earnings fell 4.9% from the first quarter but rose 8% from a year earlier, to $29.9 million, or 37 cents a share, which beat the average analyst estimate by a penny, according to Thomson Financial.
Its loan portfolio grew 1.5% from the first quarter, to $7.1 billion, as a result of an increase in commercial lending. Deposits fell 2.9%, to $7.5 billion.
