Banks’ earnings declined 7.7 percent in the January-March quarter from a year earlier, as higher interest rates dampened demand for mortgage refinancing and reduced bank revenue from the mortgage business, AP reports.
The data, issued by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Wednesday, highlighted the effect of interest rate increases last spring. It was only the second time in the last 19 quarters that the banking industry, which has been recovering from the financial crisis, posted a decline in net income from the year-earlier quarter.
