By Becky Yerak
| Nearly 30 percent of the 630 banks and thrifts in Illinois lost money in
2009, but the percentage was nearly twice as high among banks in the
Chicago area, according to two recent studies.

A report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. released Wednesday
showed that 29 percent of the state’s insured institutions were
unprofitable in 2009, up from 22 percent in 2008 and 11 percent in 2007.

But according to a study of 163 Chicago-area banks released last month by investment bank Howe Barnes Hoefer & Arnett, 95 banks, or 58 percent, failed to post a profit in 2009.

“The landscape remains rough,” Howe Barnes analyst Daniel Cardenas wrote in his report.

Wednesday’s report by the FDIC showed that there were 58,619 full-time employees at Illinois’ 630 insured institutions, down from 60,807 workers at 655 lenders in 2008.

The Illinois industry had an aggregate loss of $558 million, compared with a loss of $87 million in 2008. But lenders with assets of less than $100 million as a whole earned money.

The percentage of noncurrent loans to total loans rose to 4.3 percent in 2009 from 3.5 percent in 2008 and 1.3 percent in 2007. Again, smaller lenders had lower percentages of delinquent loans, the FDIC reported.

To see the Illinois results, click here.