They would never do that would they? <VBG>
biz.yahoo.com
U.S. thrift industry earns record $7.6 bln in 1998
WASHINGTON, March 2 (Reuters) - A healthy economy and booming housing sales boosted U.S. thrift industry earnings to a
record $7.6 billion last year, beating the previous record of $6.4 billion in 1997, the Office of Thrift Supervision said on Tuesday.
Fourth quarter earnings, however, declined to $1.4 billion from the third quarter's record $2.2 billion and the 1997 fourth quarter's
$1.7 billion, due to one-time restructuring charges related to industry mergers and acquisitions.
OTS director Ellen Seidman said the thrift industry continued to be financially strong, but the agency's examiners were concerned by three areas: thrifts are getting
into higher-risk lending without adequately managing risks; there has been some lowering of lending standards; and more construction lending is being done on a
speculative basis.
''We are pleased with what we are seeing but, as always, when the economy is doing well, that is the time for regulators to ensure people are not taking excessive
risks that will bite them if the economy begins to turn (downward),'' Seidman said.
Despite some early signs that thrifts are beginning to overreach for high yields, the thrift industry's asset quality continued to improve.
Troubled assets fell to 0.77 percent of total assets in the fourth quarter, down from 0.99 percent in the year-earlier quarter and the lowest level since the measure
was first used in 1990. |
