PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island-based banks grew profit at a much faster clip than the rest of the country during the first half of 2017, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
The nine FDIC-backed Rhode Island banks reported an aggregate net income of $577 million during the first two quarters of 2017, according to figures released on Tuesday.
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The profit represents a 32 percent increase compared to the same six-month period a year earlier, and nearly triples the aggregate profit growth of 11.6 percent for all banks recorded nationwide.
The 5,787 FDIC-backed banks across the country reported profit in aggregate totaled $92.1 billion through the first half of the year.
“This was another positive quarter for the banking industry,” said FDIC Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg. “Revenue and net income growth were both strong, profitability reached a post-crisis high and net interest margins improved.”
The chairman again noted a slowdown in annual rate of loan growth for the third consecutive quarter, and urged banks to be wary of the trend.
“The industry must manage interest-rate risk, liquidity risk and credit risk carefully to remain on the long-run, sustainable growth path,” he said.
Rhode Island banks also outperformed Massachusetts financial institutions. The 128 FDIC-backed Bay State banks grew profit 14.6 percent to $1.7 billion through the first half of the year. The performance comes on the heels of strong first-quarter performance reported by the FDIC earlier this year.
FDIC numbers are based on federally insured lines of businesses, and exclude non-FDIC affiliates, or subsidiaries headquartered in other states, making it difficult to know exactly where the profit and losses are coming from.
Citizens Financial Group Inc., however, likely led the way in Rhode Island. The parent of Providence-based Citizens Bank recorded record-breaking first-quarter profit and followed it up with second quarter profit growth of 27.9 percent, which totaled $243 million.
Citizens is the largest Rhode Island-based bank with assets totaling $145.2 billion.
“We are turning a corner, so to speak, from our turnaround phase to a new growth phase with a desire to become a top performing regional bank,” said Bruce Van Saun, chairman and CEO, during a second-quarter conference call with investors.
Eli Sherman is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Sherman@PBN.com, or follow him on Twitter @Eli_Sherman.
