Banks to post a rare quarterly loss

WSJ reports banks and savings institutions in the U.S. appear headed for their first overall quarterly loss since 1990, as troubled loans pile up faster than the federal government's unprecedented efforts to aid the battered industry.

Since posting combined profit of $1.7 billion in the third quarter, already a 94% plunge from a year earlier, life has gotten even worse for the roughly 8,300 financial institutions with deposits backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Rising unemployment is causing more agony from old problems such as shaky mortgages and credit cards, and losses now are spreading to commercial real-estate loans.

"The earnings power for this industry has absolutely collapsed," says Eric Hovde, chief executive of Hovde Capital Advisors, a money-management co in Washington that specializes in financial services. Nearly a quarter of U.S. financial institutions reported a net loss for the quarter ended Sept. 30. The percentage is likely to climb when fourth-quarter results are announced in January.

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