FDIC Issues Quarterly Banking Profile for Second Quarter 2017

Federal Issues Banking FDIC

On August 22, the FDIC released its latest Quarterly Banking Profile. The profile indicates that commercial banks and savings institutions reported an aggregate net income of $48.3 billion in the second quarter of 2017—a 10.7 percent increase from the previous year. The FDIC primarily attributed the rise in second quarter income to an increase in net interest income and noninterest income. Average return on assets rose to 1.14 percent, which is the highest in 10 years. Community bank net income increased 8.5 percent from a year earlier to $5.7 billion in the second quarter and community banks “continue[d] to report higher net interest margins than the overall industry,” although, the gap is narrowing. However, FDIC Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg noted in a statement released that same day that the annual rate of loan growth has slowed for three consecutive quarters and that “an extended period of low interest rates and an increasingly competitive lending environment have led some institutions to reach for yield,” which created “heightened exposure to interest-rate risk, liquidity risk, and credit risk.”