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WASHINGTON — The nation’s banks lost $26.2 billion in the last three months of 2008, the first quarterly loss in 18 years, as the housing and credit crises escalated. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Thursday banks and thrifts also more than doubled the amount they set aside to cover potential loan losses, to $69.3 billion.
Rising losses on loans and eroding values of assets “overwhelmed” banks’ revenues in the fourth quarter, the FDIC said. More than two-thirds of all banks and thrifts turned a profit in that period, but their earnings were outstripped by large losses at a number of major banks.
