Commercial banking

The top five banks and thrifts had combined assets of more than $13 trillion as of December 31, 2023.

The Connecticut bank —a regional traditionally regarded as a cautious lender — said nonperforming loans and leases rose 53% year-over-year. The uptick was in mostly the commercial-and-industrial loan space, although there was one nonperforming commercial real estate loan, executives said.

The two regional banks are anticipating that borrower demand will increase in the back half of the year. High interest rates and economic uncertainty have been muting the appetite for borrowing.

After several quarters of slumping investment banking and trading fees, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company reported a big uptick from that division, which helped compensate for a large decline in net interest income.

The top five bank holding companies have combined business loan portfolios of more than $2.5 trillion as of December 31, 2023.

The Cleveland-based bank is projecting steady growth in net interest income even as credit losses remain manageable. But Chairman and CEO Chris Gorman also said that he thinks a recession is likely.

The first-quarter increase involved commercial real estate loans, including some problematic multifamily loans and an office credit, but none of the criticized loans were to consumers, officials at the Dallas company say. Further CRE deterioration is anticipated.

Charge-offs and nonperforming loans rose at the Georgia bank in the first quarter. But it blamed the problem on one large client and said the matter has been resolved.

After the Minneapolis-based company reported stubbornly high commercial deposit costs, it reduced its full-year forecast for net interest income by $200 million-$500 million.

Societe Generale has been seeking more than $1.1 billion for the business, according to the people, sources told Bloomberg News.