Zions earnings rose 20 percent to $1.78 a share as charge-offs fell to $3m
Net charge-offs fell to $3 million. A year earlier the figure was $56 million, and that one line accounts for most of the change in Zions Bancorporation's third quarter. The Salt Lake City lender reported net earnings of $262 million and diluted earnings per share of $1.78 on October 19, against $221 million and $1.48 a year earlier, in an 8-K filed with the SEC after the market close.
Zions said the year-ago quarter carried $50 million of charge-offs on revolving credit lines to two related commercial borrowers that financed commercial mortgages. This time the provision for credit losses was a benefit of $8 million, against a $49 million expense. Chairman and Chief Executive Harris Simmons put the higher earnings down primarily to improved credit quality.
The lending side was flatter. Net interest income rose 2 percent to $684 million while the net interest margin slipped to 3.23 percent from 3.28 percent, and Simmons said a faster pace of loan payoffs in a competitive market left loans level with the second quarter at $62.5 billion. Customer deposits rose 5 percent from a year earlier to $74.5 billion. Earnings were down from the second quarter's $3.05 a share, which included a one-time gain on Visa shares.
