Banks, Quarterly Profit | featured news

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 bank, which is often considered a bellwether, said that it had clawed back to profitability in the first quarter, after two consecutive periods of losses.

The bank beat Q4 estimates. Executives say credit statistics are improving.