Fifth Third Bancorp (NSDQ: FITB) announced Thursday that its first quarter loss nearly tripled compared to a year ago as noninterest income declined. However, the regional bank said it saw solid improvement in credit costs as delinquent loans fell by 15 percent in the period.
The Cincinnati based bank said it lost $72 million or 9 cents a share, much wider than the loss of $26 million or 4 cents a share in the same period a year earlier. The result fell short of estimates
as analysts were looking for 18 cents a share.
Fifth Third said it incurred a one-time charge in the first quarter related to bank owned life insurance policies that were surrendered, costing the bank $121 million or 21 cents a share.
and president of Fifth Third Bancorp. “Since the beginning of the credit crisis, we have focused on addressing the sources of credit issues, on aggressively identifying and resolving problem loans.
At the same time, we’ve sought to ensure that we were appropriately reserved and capitalized for the deterioration that we expected to occur as the credit cycle unfolded.”
Noninterest income pulled down results in the first quarter, declining 4 percent to $627 million. However, net interest income did grow in the first quarter to $901 million.
The bank saw continued improvement in its credit portfolio with the number of deliquent loans falling 15 percent, to its lowest level since 2007. Nonperforming loans dipped 7 percent in the period, while net charge-offs declined $126 million or 18 percent.
Looking ahead, Fifth Third expects to see credit costs decline by another $100 million or so in the second quarter, with full-year charge-offs expected to total be much less than the $2.6 billion
incurred in 2009.
