How to Read the FDIC Risk Review — Bank Earnings, Funding, Credit Risks and Problem Banks

As of 8 November 2026, 01:23 KST (retrieved by this page at that time); latest listed on the agency page at retrieval: the 2026 Risk Review of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), a 44-page report on banks in 2025 (web page Last Updated: April 22, 2026; PDF cover: 2026). Primary source: https://www.fdic.gov/analysis/2026-risk-review-full.pdf^[1][2]

Comparison basis: ratios are aggregate industry figures in percent, rounded by FDIC to two decimals; where FDIC prints only a change in basis points, the 2024 value marked ≈ is this page's back-calculation from the rounded 2025 value and is itself approximate. Banks here means FDIC-insured depository institutions.^[1]

In three lines

1. The FDIC's annual Risk Review covers funding, interest rate and credit risks at FDIC-insured banks, with sections on market conditions, funding and six credit areas.
2. In 2025 industry return on assets was 1.20% (Section 2.2) and the net interest margin 3.30% (Section 3); unrealized securities losses fell to $306 billion.
3. Problem banks fell from 66 to 60 (Section 2.2), and loans to nondepository financial institutions reached $1.4 trillion (Section 4.2).^[1]

Scope. "The 2026 Risk Review provides an overview of funding, interest rate, and credit risks banks faced in 2025." The glossary defines banks as FDIC-insured depository institutions, and most figures come from Call Reports; market and economic data are attributed to other sources such as the Bureau of Economic Analysis, CoStar and MSCI Real Capital Analytics.^[1]

Definitions used throughout. "The terms “past-due and nonaccrual” or “PDNA” are used to describe loans that are 30 or more days past due or in nonaccrual status." "The pre-pandemic period is the period starting first quarter 2015 through fourth quarter 2019, unless otherwise noted." "Banks on the FDIC’s “Problem Bank List” have a CAMELS composite rating of “4” or “5.”"^[1]

Community bank comparisons. Community banks follow the criteria of the FDIC's 2012 Community Banking Study. "When comparing community bank performance across years, previous year dollar amounts are based on community banks designated as such in the current year, adjusted for mergers." Ratios for the previous year, by contrast, use the previous year's community bank list, so dollar growth and ratio changes for community banks are computed on different groups.^[1]

A data gap noted by FDIC. "There is no October 2025 unemployment rate due to a lapse in federal government funding that precluded data collection."^[1]

Earnings and margin. "The banking industry’s aggregate return on assets (ROA) of 1.20 percent increased 8 basis points from 2024, reaching its highest level since 2021." "The NIM increased 8 basis points in 2025 to 3.30 percent (Chart 3.2)." "Bank funding costs, which generally reflect short-term market rates, declined from 2.61 percent in 2024 to 2.26 percent in 2025, much of which occurred in the first half of 2025." "Asset yields declined from 5.83 percent in 2024 to 5.56 percent in 2025, largely reflecting lower loan yields." Funding costs fell 35 basis points and asset yields 27 basis points (this page's subtractions), which matches the margin widening FDIC describes; the attribution of causes is FDIC's.^[1]

Growth partly from reclassification. "In 2025, NDFI loans grew 35.2 percent year over year; however, some of this growth is attributed to banks reclassifying loans due to revised Consolidated Report of Condition and Income (Call Report) instructions on NDFI loans." "As of December 31, 2025, bank loans outstanding to NDFIs totaled $1.4 trillion, which represented 5.6 percent of total industry assets." FDIC also says overall loan growth was led by loans to NDFIs and that growth in these categories partly reflects reclassifications, so the 5.9 percent loan growth ("Loan growth was 5.9 percent in 2025, higher than growth in 2024 and the fastest annual growth rate in 11 quarters (Chart 2.2.2).") includes some reporting shifts rather than only new lending.^[1]

Asset quality vs averages. "The PDNA rate for the banking industry declined 4 basis points from 2024 to 1.56 percent and remained well below the pre-pandemic average rate." "The aggregate net charge-off rate declined during the year to 0.63 percent but remained above the pre-pandemic average rate of 0.48 percent." The two measures sit on opposite sides of their pre-pandemic averages, so the report's general description of favorable asset quality depends on which measure is read.^[1]

Problem banks. "The number of banks on the FDIC’s “Problem Bank List” decreased by a net of six to 60 at year-end 2025 from 66 banks at year-end 2024." "The number of problem banks represented 1.4 percent of total banks at year-end 2025, within the normal range of 1 to 2 percent for non-crisis periods." The normal range of 1 to 2 percent is FDIC's description.^[1]

A year label as printed. "Nearly 15 percent of banks reported total residential loans to capital above 300 percent, up moderately from 2025 but below the 17 percent peak reached in 2011." The comparison year is printed as 2025 in a report on 2025; it is reported here as printed, and which year was intended is not established by the report.^[1]

Dates. Web page Last Updated: April 22, 2026; PDF cover: 2026. The cited pages give no separate publication date. Earlier editions back to 2019 are listed on the same page.^[1][2]

Next report. The Risk Review is issued yearly; the date of the next edition is not established by these sources. Quarterly industry figures appear separately in the FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile.^[2]