Bank Profits Increase: Despite heavy losses by...

Bank Profits Increase: Despite heavy losses by large U.S. banks on commercial real estate loans, the nation’s banks collectively posted a $14.8-billion earnings rise in the first three quarters of 1990 over the year-earlier period, said Alex Sheshunoff & Co., a leading industry authority. The firm said 89% of the nation’s 12,391 banks were profitable in the 1990 period, reporting earnings of $19.3 billion. But losses of $4.5 billion, concentrated among some of the largest institutions, offset those profits.