US Big National/Regional Banks 3Q 2012 Earnings Up a Solid 18%

Other than the ones included in the Big 8 US Financials, which I covered in a very recent earlier post, I found 13 US National/Regional Banks, which file with the SEC, which have already reported their 3Q 2012 earnings, and which generated Pretax Income of roughly $200 mil or more in either the 3Q 2012 or the 3Q 2011.

These 13 US Big National/Regional Banks had their Total Pretax Income in the 3Q 2012 increase by a very impressive 18% from the 3Q 2011, which was a marked very positive earnings reversal from the 4% earnings decline experienced by these same 13 Banks in the 2Q 2012 as compared with the 2Q 2011.

The clear stick out winners here were Capital One Financial, BB&T and M&T Bank.  And just like with the much larger JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and US Bancorp, many of these US National/Regional Banks were helped by much more robust mortgage related income.

Region's Financial had a huge $290 mil increase in its 3Q 2012 earnings, but it was all due to lower Provisions for Loan Losses of $322 mil.

Unlike in just about every quarter of the past 14 quarters, the earnings quality of these Big National/Regional was good in the current 3Q 2012.  Other than Region's Financial, there weren't large reductions in Loan Loss Provisions in the 3Q 2012 as compared to the previous year quarter.  And Sun Trust Bank's reduction in earnings in the 3Q 2012 was due to several earnings charges caused by actions taken to improve the bank's risk profile and to also strengthen its balance sheet.

Below here is the Ongoing, Core Pretax Income (PTI) of these 13 US Big National/Regional Banks for the 3Q 2012 and the 3Q 2011.

		Pretax	Pretax
		Income	Income	Increase	Increase
	State	(Loss)	(Loss)	(Decrease)	(Decrease)
	HQs	3Q 2012	3Q 2011	Amount	%
		mils $s	mils $s	mils $s
US Big National/Regional Banks
Capital One Financial	VA	1,723	1,235	488	40%
PNC Financial	PA	1,210	1,143	67	6%
Bank NY Mellon	NY	975	945	30	3%
BB&T	NC	716	439	277	63%
State Street Corp	MA	664	629	35	6%
Fifth Third Bancorp	OH	558	530	28	5%
Regions Financial	AL	448	158	290	184%
M&T Bank	NY	446	265	181	68%
Key Corp	OH	273	330	(57)	-17%
Northern Trust	IL	266	253	13	5%
Huntington Bancshares	OH	196	182	14	8%
Unionbancal	CA	160	201	(41)	-20%
SunTrust Banks	GA	146	259	(113)	-44%
Total all 13		7,781	6,569	1,212	18%