U.S. Banks Loan-Loss Reserve Coverage of Noncurrent Loans (FDIC)

## What this measures

The allowance banks have set aside for expected loan and lease losses as a percent of noncurrent loans and leases (90 days or more past due, or on nonaccrual), for all FDIC-insured institutions at quarter end.

## Why it matters

It measures how well reserves cover loans that have already stopped paying. A falling ratio means problem loans are growing faster than banks are reserving for them, which leaves future earnings to absorb the losses.

## How to read it

Higher means more cushion. It was below one hundred percent, with noncurrent loans larger than reserves, from 1984 through 1993 and from 2007 through 2017. The current expected credit loss accounting standard (CECL), adopted by large banks from 2020, reserves for losses over the life of each loan, so readings since then are not strictly comparable with earlier ones.

## 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. Reserves cover all loans, not just noncurrent ones, so the ratio is a rough gauge, not a loss forecast.

## Source

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Quarterly Banking Profile, "QBP time series spreadsheets" workbook (sheet "Ratios by Asset Size Groups", block "Loss Allowance to Noncurrent Loans and Leases (Coverage Ratio)", 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.