Commercial banks and savings institutions insured by the FDIC reported an aggregate profit of $21.7 billion in 4Q2010, a $23.5 billion improvement from the $1.8 billion net loss the industry reported in 4Q2009. It is the sixth consecutive quarter that earnings registered a year-over-year increase, and had four straight quarters of positive earnings. Apparently 62% of all institutions reported improvements in their quarterly net income from a year ago. Note that as has been the case in each of the past five quarters, reductions in provisions for loan losses were responsible for most of the year-over-year improvement in earnings.