U.S. Banks Net Charge-Off Rate, All Loans (FDIC)

## What this measures

Net charge-offs (loans and leases written off as uncollectible, minus recoveries on loans written off earlier) in the quarter, annualized, as a percent of average loans and leases, for all FDIC-insured institutions.

## Why it matters

Charge-offs are credit losses made real: they come out of bank earnings and capital and are the end point of rising delinquency. The rate tracks the credit cycle across every loan type banks hold.

## How to read it

Higher is worse. Its highest readings since 1984 came in 2009–2010. Read it after the noncurrent loan rate (banks.noncurrent_rate.all) and the 30–89 day past-due rate (credit.banks.qbp.past_due_30_89), which turn first.

## What it does not say

It covers FDIC-insured commercial banks and savings institutions (insured branches of foreign banks are left out), not credit unions or nonbank lenders. It is an industry figure: the largest banks move it most, and it says nothing about any one bank. The FDIC revises recent quarters as banks amend their Call Reports. Credit card lenders, with high charge-off rates, carry much weight in the total.

## Source

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Quarterly Banking Profile, "QBP time series spreadsheets" workbook (sheet "Ratios by Asset Size Groups", block "Quarterly Net Charge-Offs to Loans and Leases", row "All Insured Institutions"), linked from fdic.gov/quarterly-banking-profile each quarter. Public domain: the FDIC data catalog (fdic.gov/data.json) licenses its banking data under the U.S. public domain label, use restriction "Unrestricted". Source: FDIC. Refreshed weekly by /api/cron/credit-banks-sync, which re-reads the full history from the newest QBP.