US banks’ loan losses hit $29b on rate pain

New York | US banks suffered almost $US19 billion ($29 billion) of losses on soured loans in the second quarter, the highest level in more than three years as lenders contend with rising defaults among credit card and commercial real estate borrowers.

Lenders reported $US18.9 billion in so-called charge-offs – losses on loans marked as unrecoverable – during the quarter, an increase of almost 17 per cent on the previous three months and 75 per cent higher than the same period last year.

Financial Times