U.S. commercial bank earnings dropped
sharply to $14.7 billion in the second
quarter of 2000, their lowest level
since 1997, from a record $19.5 billion
in the first quarter, the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation said on Thursday.

. . .

The FDIC said it was seeing ``increasing
signs of problems'' in commercial and
industrial loans at large banks in particular,
but noted that despite the overall dip in
industry earnings, the majority of banks
had reported improved profitability over
the quarter.

Individual.com

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), September 21, 2000