Nonperforming assets also increased notably as the quality of mortgages, home equity lines of credit, and loans to real estate developers weakened. However, despite these adverse developments, bank holding companies still reported total net income exceeding $ billion for the full year of 2007. In addition, the overall nonperforming assets ratio remained below levels reached earlier in this decade.
The earnings performance of the fifty largest U.S. based bank holding companies as a group, which together represent more than three-fourths of all assets at bank holding companies, has clearly been subpar over the past two quarters and accounts for the industry's overall weak performance.