The bank earnings announcements for the second quarter are rolling in and, as expected, they don’t look too good.
First Horizon, a regional bank holding company in the South, said it had a loss of more than $19 million and is replacing its chief executive.
U.S. Bancorp, a Minnesota-based bank holding company with $247 billion in assets, reported a nearly 18 percent drop in net income for the second quarter. And banking giant Wachovia said it expects to report a loss of between $2.6 billion and $2.8 billion in the second quarter.
What initially seemed to be a problem related to the subprime loan mess and a depressed housing market that was reserved for the country’s largest banks appears to be growing some legs and touching regional banks.
Of course it’s not all bad news.
Commerce Bancshares, the parent of Wichita’s Commerce Bank, said it posted an earnings increase for the second quarter. Granted, the increase was only a little more than 2 percent, but it’s still an increase.
We’ll get a better idea just how bad this thing is going to get as more public banks report their quarterly numbers in the coming weeks.
And we may be in for a long ride.