The major banks in the U.S. are anticipating a flood of loan defaults as households and business customers take a big financial hit from the coronavirus pandemic. A day earlier, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo reported even steeper drops in profit as those banks also set aside large sums to cover loan losses. On Wednesday, BofA said it nearly quintupled its loan loss provisions to US$4.76 billion, while Citi set aside US$7.03 billion, up from US$1.98 billion in the first quarter a year earlier. BofA and Citi fared better than rivals JPMorgan and Wells, which both saw steeper profit declines and proportionately set aside more money to cover loan losses. Goldman Sachs had to set aside US$937 million to cover potentially bad loans, up from US$224 million a year earlier.

Source: The Standard April 16, 2020 08:48 UTC