The year 2010 left the Massachusetts banking industry with steady, moderate growth overall – but recent FDIC data shows that in some ways, local banks were treading water in the latter half of the year.
According to statewide data from the fourth quarter 2010, released by the FDIC today, Massachusetts FDIC-insured institutions’ total assets were at $101.1 billion as of the end of 2010, up from $98.8 billion as of Dec. 31, 2009.
However, the fourth-quarter figure was down by $440.6 million from the third quarter of 2010, when assets were roughly $101.5 billion – a slippage that can be partly attributed to the fourth-quarter acquisition of the over $800 million-asset, North Andover-based RiverBank by Connecticut-based People’s United.
The same moderate growth appears across a number of categories, although the banking industry overall appears to have grown despite losing RiverBank as well as Lowell’s Butler Bank to the Connecticut institution earlier in 2010. Other recently announced out-of-state acquisitions don’t influence current FDIC figures because those acquisitions have not yet been finalized.
Deposits continue to grow steadily upward, standing at $79.1 billion as of year-end 2010, compared to $75.4 billion for the same period the year prior. Equity capital was at $10.7 billion in Q4 2010, compared to $10.2 billion in the final quarter of 2009, although it, too, slipped from its recent high of $10.8 billion in the third quarter 2010.
The Massachusetts banking industry wobbled in its other real estate owned assets, growing by $5.7 million as the state’s banks continued to struggle in keeping foreclosed properties off their books. REO properties were at $196.2 million in 2010, compared to $190.5 million in 2009.
The FDIC records the volume of loans its banks retain on their books: As of December 2010, net loans were at $65.4 billion for the industry statewide, up $192.6 million across the state’s banks compared to last year. That puts 2009’s fourth-quarter number at $65.2 billion, while year-end 2008 was higher, at $66.4 billion.
For 2010, commercial real estate and commercial and industrial loans both prospered. CRE was at $17.1 billion in 2010, compared to $16.4 billion for the same period in 2009; commercial loans occupied $6.1 billion in bank’s portfolios, compared to $5.6 billion the prior year.
Banks, however, saw their single-family portfolios slide downward over the year. In 2010, they had $33.3 billion in such loans, compared to $34 billion the year before. Those figures do not account for loans made through the banks but sold to other institutions.
Institutions also appear to have held steady in their fight against delinquent loans. Loans in "nonaccrual status" – those more than 90 days overdue and no longer collecting interest – rose to $1.1 billion, inching higher compared to last year and prior quarters – in 2009, $1 billion were in nonaccrual status. However, less seriously delinquent loans, such as those only 30-89 days past due, sunk to $523.5 million compared to 2009’s $634.9 million.
Banker & Tradesman’s analysis of the Massachusetts-based banking industry includes all FDIC-insured institutions with the exception of State Street, as its $165 billion-asset size would have an outsized impact on overall figures.
