UPDATED: Agency schedules briefing to release 4th quarter/year-end 2018 banking results

Fourth-quarter and year-end financial results for the banking industry will be announced at a press briefing Thursday by the chairman of the board of the federal insurer of bank deposits.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) Board Chairman Jelena McWilliams will lead a press briefing Feb. 21 at 2 p.m., a start time revised Tuesday (the agency before Tuesday previously announced a 10:30 a.m.) on the agency’s fourth-quarter 2018 “Quarterly Banking Profile,” which summarizes bank financial results in federally insured banks.

The agency’s 2018 annual report, released Friday, indicated there were no bank failures in 2018, and the number of banks on the agency’s problem bank list fell to its lowest level since third quarter 2007. The industry posted record profits, net interest margins increased, loan balances grew, and loan performance improved, the report notes.

Last year was the first year since 2006 that the agency recorded no bank failure. Within three years of that year, however, the agency reported 145 failures – and 154 the following year, the peak of failures during the financial crisis.

Over the period 2007-14, the FDIC counted 507 failures, according to numbers posted on fdic.gov.

The Thursday press briefing will be streamed, live, via the Internet.

FDIC press briefing, 4th quarter (year-end) 2018 bank industry results