Number of U.S. ‘problem banks’ falls

The number of U.S. banks listed as “problems” by regulators declined at the end of June for the first time in five years, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said Tuesday. After having shut 394 big and small banks during the period of the financial crisis, the FDIC said its list of troubled financial institutions was finally slimming to 865 at the end of the second quarter from 888 after the first quarter. “This is the first time since the third quarter of 2006 that the number of ‘problem’ banks fell,” said the FDIC. So far this year 68 banks, most of them small community institutions, have been closed down. The FDIC also said that aggregate profits at banks and savings institutions it insures were up at the end of June to $28.8 billion from $20.9 billion a year earlier, and that only 15.2 percent of the banks reported losses. FDIC also said that asset quality had improved for the fifth consecutive quarter, with uncollectable loans totaling $28.8 billion in the quarter, 42.1 percent lower than a year earlier.