Georgia’s banks continued to show improved vital signs in the first half of the year, with more profitable banks and more jobs.
But not all things were headed in the right direction in the second quarter, almost seven years after the real estate crash led to widespread loan losses and unleashed a wave of 88 bank failures in the state — the most in the nation.
Georgia’s 217 banks reported $1.1 billion in profits in the first half of this year, down slightly from $1.2 billion in the year-earlier period, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. But more than 60 percent of the state’s banks reported higher profits, the FDIC said. Overall, 88 percent of Georgia banks were profitable, up slightly from 87 percent a year earlier.
Bank employment also inched up to 45,321, a gain of about 150 jobs from a year ago.
Banks also were lending more and more customers were catching up on loan payments. Loans were up more than 6% compared to 2013, to $198.2 billion, while the percentage of delinquent loans dropped to 1.7 percent from more than 4 percent a couple of years ago.
“It’s a good report,” said Joe Brannen, president of the Georgia Bankers Association. “Most everybody was reporting loan growth, and it was not just real estate-based.”
Still, the lower profits were a step back from the first quarter, when Georgia’s banks reported their highest profits since before the Great Recession. Georgia’s banks also didn’t keep up with their counterparts across the nation, which reported a 5.3 percent increase in profits in the second quarter, to $40.2 billion.
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