Recent years have seen bank loan losses exceeded only by those of the Great Depression. This experience, along with tax and regulatory changes, has triggered changes in the reserve account through which banks provide for such losses

Reduced provisions for loan losses in 1988 boosted bank profits in the Fifth District and nationwide. Profit ratios also may have been influenced somewhat by subsidiary banks' payment of management fees to their holding companies

During the early 1990s, some accused examiners of being too strict with banks in New England and California, thus contributing to economic difficulties in those regions. When measures of examiner strictness are analyzed, however, no evidence of strictness is found. To the contrary, banks in New...

Gains from sales of securities and lower loan loss previsions helped bring higher profits to large Fifth District commercial banks in 1986. At the same time, small- and medium-sized bank profits fell slightly in the District from the previous year. As in the past few years, Fifth District banks...

The final four years of the 1980s were difficult for banks in the U.S. Between 1986 and 1988 problems in the agricultural and oil sectors led to losses and numerous bank failures. The nation's largest banks suffered losses as income was set aside in 1987 and 1989 to deal with problems in...

Bank profitability as measured by return on assets and return on equity declined in the Fifth Federal Reserve Disntrict in 1987 due largely to increased loan and lease loss provisions. Nationwide the profitability decline was considerably larger because the average loss provision greatly...

The profitability of commercial banks in the Fifth Federal Reserve District improved in 1985. Return on assets reached .98 percent and return on equity 15.41 percent, well above the average of the past seven years. In comparison, the corresponding figures for all banks in the United States were...

The 1980 enactment of legislation extending authority to offer interest-bearing checking instruments to all depository institutions has brought intensified competition for consumers' transaction balances

1984 was another strong year for Fifth District banks. Average return on assets, though slightly lower than in 1983, was still higher than the national average. This article, by David L. Mengle and John R. Walter, analyzes the factors affecting the profitability of District banks in 1984 to...