Otherwise it would have posted a loss of 2

They have recorded a profit in the second quarter, major US commercial banks continue to suffer from deterioration of the economy affecting all their credit portfolios. It's credit cards, mortgage, loans to the value of homes ("home equity"), or of the commercial real estate, there is not a part of their lender activity which does not lose money today.

JPMorgan Chase, which however surprised Wall Street with an income which has doubled over a year and a net profit of $ 2.7 billion - mainly worn by his investment bank - had to raise its provisions of $ 2 billion to be 30 billion and to guard against bad surprises. The Bank has indeed lost 955 million in mortgage and 672 million in credit cards. She provisioned 9.7 billion on the activity of credit cards and mortgages, "whose quality deteriorates faster than expected", said the leaders.

The first bank in terms of assets, Bank of America, is able to generate a profit of 3.2 billion at the end of June - it would have been 1.4 billion without exceptional items, argue analystsbut has also suffered from the degradation of the credits. As the previous quarter, the Bank has provisioned 13.4 billion but it has also increased its reserves of $ 4.7 billion. For credit card losses amounted to a record level of $ 1.6 billion, those for "home equity" have somewhat decreased, falling from 948 million a year to 725 million in the second quarter of 2009.

Ken Lewis, CEO of Bank of America, warned Friday that the second part of the year would be more difficult than the first. But it also noted that the growth in the number of defaults would be slowing down and "that he felt less subject to the pressure of the economic environment." The Bank generated banking net proceeds of 33 billion over the past three months, brought by its activities on the capital markets and immobiliers appropriations.

Signs of moderation

The other giant, Citi, was able to record a net profit of $ 4.2 billion in the second quarter through the provision of Smith Barney to Morgan Stanley in a joint company which reported $ 6.7 billion. Otherwise, it would have posted a loss of $ 2.4 billion analysts (read here). Unlike its rivals, including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, its revenues in the Investment Bank declined 7 in the quarter ($6.8 billion) and those of retail banking decreased by 19 to $ 5.6 billion. In total, its net banking product is established to $ 29.9 billion.

Credit costs accounted for 12.4 billion to Citi over the last quarter and include 8.4 billion for losses in real estate and credit cards, and 3.9 billion negliGent reserves. "Our principal challenge concerne credit to consumers," noted Friday Vikram Pandit. "Our losses have continued to grow for a time but we are beginning to see signs of moderation."Citi as Bank of America have been those who have been the most supported by the public authorities. The Federal State has injected 45 billion each. Regulators continue to be extremely vigilant on the management of leaders and require many changes both in terms of composition of the assets of the Board of Directors to risk management.

But there is not that these mammoth who suffer. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which guarantees the deposits of banks, announced Friday 4 new bankruptcy since the beginning of the year, bringing the total to 57. Four regional banks were closed, including two important in California. Vineyard Bank was 1.9 billion of assets while the Temeculla Valley Bank managed 1.5 billion.

Read also "filter" page 28 and the editorial by François Vidal page 8.