Financial Industry, Profit | featured news

Citigroup Inc said quarterly profit plunged on a $4.7 billion write-down of its stake in a brokerage operated by Morgan Stanley, but mortgage lending increased and capital markets results rebounded.

Finally moving beyond a trading debacle that has stained his once-stellar reputation, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s chief executive, on Friday trumpeted a strong quarter of earnings stemming from a surge in mortgage lending.

Here’s something that may (or may not) surprise about you about banks: They’re raking in profits like it’s 2007. It's not such a rosy environment for banks once you cut a little deeper into the numbers. The latest data from the FDIC show banks taking in net income of $34.5 billion in the second quarter of 2012, that’s up $5.9 billion from from the second quarter of 2011.

Fourth-quarter profit at Wells Fargo rose 20% as the banking giant posted more loan growth and again reduced the amount of money it sets aside to cover potential loan losses.

Citigroup posted second-quarter earnings of $2.7 billion Friday, marking its second consecutive profit and beating Wall Street expectations, thanks to improving credit ...

The results marked a reversal of fortune for Morgan Stanley, which had reported three consecutive quarterly losses.

Citigroup Inc, one of the big U.S. banks hit hardest by the financial crisis, posted a quarterly profit as gains from the sale of its Smith Barney brokerage into a joint venture more than offset losses from its primary banking businesses.

JPMorgan Chase becomes the second major US bank to report a big rise in profits for the April to June period.