Commercial banks in Tenth District states continued to perform well in the first half of 1994. Profitability leveled off at a high level, asset quality improved, and loan growth accelerated. Based on these performance measures, banks in district states once again outperformed banks in the rest...

The average profitability of banks in Tenth District states edged up in 1987 after five years of decline. Agricultural banks showed the greatest recovery, combining faster loan growth with lower loan losses and higher profits.

One of the most important roles commercial banks perform is to lend to small businesses. Such lending is vital to the regional economy because small businesses generally lack access to alternative sources of credit and because they account for a major share of job creation. Moreover, small...

Recent development in Congress and the courts have focused attention on the relative roles of commercial banks, thrifts, and credit unions. As concern mounted last year about the state of the thrift deposit insurance fund, Congress required commercial banks to share the burden of recapitalizing...

Commercial banks in Tenth District states continued to perform well in 1997. Profitability remained high, loan quality improved, and loan growth and deposit growth were both strong. Banks in district states also outperformed banks nationwide by all four performance measures.

Commercial banks in Tenth District states performed well in the first half of 1997. Profitability and loan quality remained high, while loans continued to grow at a healthy pace. The only negative was that deposits grew sluggishly, adding to liquidity pressures. Banks in district states slightly...

Bank credit, the sum of loans and securities at commercial banks, is widely viewed as providing information about the current and future state of the economy. Analysts have been concerned about the behavior of bank credit during the nation's recovery from the 1990-91 recession. At first,...

During the last several years, concern has increased that changes in the financial system have made it harder for rural banks to attract enough deposits to meet local credit demands. While urban banks may face some of the same problems, it is widely believed that funding pressures have increased...