• 287 days Will The ECB Continue To Hike Rates?
  • 287 days Forbes: Aramco Remains Largest Company In The Middle East
  • 289 days Caltech Scientists Succesfully Beam Back Solar Power From Space
  • 689 days Could Crypto Overtake Traditional Investment?
  • 694 days Americans Still Quitting Jobs At Record Pace
  • 696 days FinTech Startups Tapping VC Money for ‘Immigrant Banking’
  • 699 days Is The Dollar Too Strong?
  • 699 days Big Tech Disappoints Investors on Earnings Calls
  • 700 days Fear And Celebration On Twitter as Musk Takes The Reins
  • 702 days China Is Quietly Trying To Distance Itself From Russia
  • 702 days Tech and Internet Giants’ Earnings In Focus After Netflix’s Stinker
  • 706 days Crypto Investors Won Big In 2021
  • 706 days The ‘Metaverse’ Economy Could be Worth $13 Trillion By 2030
  • 707 days Food Prices Are Skyrocketing As Putin’s War Persists
  • 709 days Pentagon Resignations Illustrate Our ‘Commercial’ Defense Dilemma
  • 710 days US Banks Shrug off Nearly $15 Billion In Russian Write-Offs
  • 713 days Cannabis Stocks in Holding Pattern Despite Positive Momentum
  • 714 days Is Musk A Bastion Of Free Speech Or Will His Absolutist Stance Backfire?
  • 714 days Two ETFs That Could Hedge Against Extreme Market Volatility
  • 716 days Are NFTs About To Take Over Gaming?
Is The Bull Market On Its Last Legs?

Is The Bull Market On Its Last Legs?

This aging bull market may…

Another Retail Giant Bites The Dust

Another Retail Giant Bites The Dust

Forever 21 filed for Chapter…

  1. Home
  2. Markets
  3. Other

Summarizing Bank Earnings With Two Charts

Now that the big banks have reported below are two charts that sum up how they are doing aside from the noise of "beating expectations."

Chart 1: Income before provisions for loan losses. The provision game is one way to "pad" earnings based on assumptions for future loan losses. By looking at income before provisions one gets a better sense of how profitable the banks are or in other words how well they can service provisions for loan losses. Notice the falling trend. In other words with flat to declining revenues and rising non interest expense the banks are simply generating less income.

JPM, WFC, C, BAC Pre Provisional Income

Chart 2: This one says it all. Below are the total reserves as a percent of loans and leases. In other words as provisions are reduced each quarter to help pad earnings, less is set aside for future losses. What makes this chart interesting is the right axis that shows the value of home prices over the same period. How can you reduce reserves while home prices keep falling and unemployment is rising?

JPM, WFC, C, BAC Total Loan Loss Reserve of Total Loans and Leases

 

Back to homepage

Leave a comment

Leave a comment