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The News Tribune Business Team will keep you updated on what's happening in the South Sound and beyond. Check here for news about economic development, aerospace, shopping and much more.

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Contributors

Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.

C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.

John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.

Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.

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Get the most up-to-date news, insights and analysis of Tacoma, Pierce County and South Puget Sound business.
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
Posted by C.R. Roberts @ 04:12:46 pm

The proof of the profit-pudding has arrived and those monetary chickens have come home to roost – as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. releases its first-quarter numbers on state banks.

The January-March figures, out today, offer data from 82 FDIC-insured institutions in Washington. Among the numbers (compared to the first quarter of 2007:

• Total assets rose to $59.57 billion from $53.41 million.
• Total loans and leases rose to $48.07 billion from $42.60 billion.
• Total deposits rose to $43.82 billion from $40.73 billion.

Which looks fairly good. But consider:
• Net interest margin for the banks fell to 4.02 percent from 4.41percent.
• Net charge-offs as a percentage of all loans and leases rose to 0.27 percent from 0.04 percent.
• Return on assets fell to 0.56 percent from 1.27 percent.
• 21.9 percent of institutions were unprofitable, up from 11.9 percent a year ago.
• 40.24 percent of institutions had earnings gains, against 60.71 percent in 2007.
• For nonperforming assets (or bad loans), the figure was up to 1.42 percent of total assets against 0.27 percent a year ago.

Categories: Banking