BankTracker data updated

By: Wendell Cochran

Posted: Sept. 15, 2010 | Tags: banks, BankTracker, FDIC, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

This post has been updated to correct the number of banks that have failed so far this year.

We have posted the second quarter banking data on our BankTracker site.

Here's what they show:

--The nation's banks had their best quarter in more than two years, according to their reports to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. But the woes brought on by the financial crisis will still take a long time to repair, as the number of banks on the government "problem list" continues to grow.

-- The amount of troubled assets on bank's books declined for the first time since the beginning of 2008, even though it remains uncomfortably high at $355 billion at the end of June. It was $382 billion at the end of March.

-- The number of banks with more troubled assets than capital and reserves also declined, from 411 at the end of March to 397 as of  June 30.

-- As a group, the 7,830 banks insured by the FDIC made $21.6 billion in the quarter, the best since the third quarter of 2007, when the financial crisis was just beginning to develop. Most the the improvement came because banks set aside much less money to cover bad loans.

Even so, FDIC Chair Sheila Bair said last month that banks need the economy the keep improving. "As long as economic conditions remain supportive, most institutions should maintain profitiability and increase their capacity to lend," Bair said.

And while conditions were generally improving, the FDIC still added another 54 banks to its "problem list." The agency now classifies 829 banks as "problem institutions," the most in more than a decade. The FDIC won't disclose which banks are on that list, but it is clear that most are relatively small.

So far this year, 119 banks have failed.