Georgia’s 169 FDIC-insured banks earned $1.15 billion in net income during the third quarter, up 29.3 percent from the same quarter in 2017. Combined year-to-date earnings of the state’s banks through the end of September were $3.25 billion, up 30 percent from the first nine months of 2017. Total loans and leases of $227.9 billion were up by 1.7 percent, and total deposits of $256.7 billion declined slightly from the same time last year. “Georgia banks continue to outpreform the national average in a number of areas, such as having a higher return on equity, return on assets, equity to capital ratios, and net interest margins as well as a lower percentage of net charge offs. It’s not unexpected that we’d see a slight drop in total deposits as there were nine fewer institutions based in Georgia during the comparable periods. From a positive standpoint, however, the fact there was loan and asset growth with fewer institutions shows the lending environment is probably more robust overall than the percentage growth here shows,” said Joe Brannen, GBA president and CEO. Click here for a chart that shows year-to-date details compared to the previous quarter, the same quarter in 2017 and nationwide. The FDIC released its Quarterly Banking Profile Tuesday. Overall industry earnings were also up 29.3 percent from the prior year. Get more details here.

From the entire GBA staff, please accept our most heartfelt thanks for your continued support and confidence. Hear why we at GBA are thankful in this special Thanksgiving video message, and tell us what fills you with gratitude using #thankfulgabanker. Note, our office will be closed Thursday and Friday.