WASHINGTON — U.S. banks’ earnings declined 7.7 percent in the January-March quarter from a year earlier, as higher interest rates dampened demand for mortgage refinancing and reduced banks’ revenue from the mortgage business.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reported that the banking industry earned $37.2 billion in the first quarter of this year, down from $40.3 billion in the same period in 2013.
It was only the second time in the last 19 quarters that banks, which have been recovering from the financial crisis, posted a decline in net income from the year-earlier quarter.
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.