News release: “Commercial banks and savings institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) reported an aggregate profit of $35.3 billion in the third quarter of 2011, an $11.5 billion improvement from the $23.8 billion in net income the industry reported in the third quarter of 2010. This is the ninth consecutive quarter that earnings registered a year-over-year increase…As was the case in each of the last eight quarters, lower provisions for loan losses were responsible for most of the year-over-year improvement in earnings. Third-quarter loss provisions totaled $18.6 billion, almost 50 percent less than the $35.1 billion that insured institutions set aside for losses in the third quarter of 2010. A majority of all institutions (63 percent) reported improvements in quarterly net income from a year ago. Also, the share of institutions reporting net losses for the quarter fell to 14.3 percent, down from 19.5 percent a year earlier. The average return on assets (ROA), a basic yardstick of profitability, rose to 1.03 percent, from 0.72 percent a year ago.”