摘要：Compared to the previous quarter, first-quarter
profitability fell for most categories of banks in our
sample, continuing a trend of declining profitability that
began in the first quarter of last year (see the table).
This trend is explained by declining net interest margins
and increased provisioning for loan losses in response
to increases in the ratio of nonperforming loans to total
loans.1
Some other general trends are that both large and
small banks remain well capitalized, the ratios of
noninterest expense to average assets and noninterest
income to average assets are essentially unchanged, and
loan demand remains adequate.
