“PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (PNC), the second-largest U.S. regional bank, said fourth-quarter profit rose 46 percent, beating analysts’ estimates, as revenue from fees increased.
Net income climbed to $719 million, or $1.24 a share, from $493 million, or 85 cents, a year earlier, the Pittsburgh-based bank said today in a statement. Excluding the cost of increased mortgage putback reserves and other one-time items, earnings per share were $1.71, compared with the $1.48 average estimate of 22 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Full-year profit declined 2.3 percent to $3 billion, or $5.30 a share.
Lenders including PNC and U.S. Bancorp, the nation’s largest regional bank, are boosting provisions for mortgage repurchases as government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae andFreddie Mac expand scrutiny of loans. U.S. regulators struck a deal with 10 mortgage servicers last week in which lenders must provide $5.2 billion in mortgage assistance and $3.3 billion in direct payments to wronged borrowers.
“Core earnings are moving in a direction to support higher valuations as growth continues into 2013, especially as this foreclosure settlement should begin to streamline future foreclosure activities and enable resources to be reduced in the servicing department,” Marty Mosby, an analyst at Guggenheim Securities LLC, said in a Jan. 9 note….”
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