Wednesday, May 23, 2018

A Big Quarter for Banks

Bank profits soared by 28 percent during the first quarter of 2018 to $56 billion, according to statistics published this week by the FDIC. The blockbuster earnings report easily tops the prior record set just three quarters earlier.

The FDIC said that 70 percent of the nation's 5,606 banks grew their bottom line during the last quarter. The percentage of money-losing banks dropped to just 3.9 percent. The FDIC's list of problem banks fell to just 92, the lowest that figure has been since the first quarter of 2008.

The financial industry owes a chunk of the mega earnings to the corporate tax cut passed at the end of last year. The FDIC said the tax law boosted bank profits by about $6.7 billion. However, banks would have still made a record $49.4 billion without the tax cuts.

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