The major banks in the U.S. are anticipating

a flood of loan defaults as households and

business customers take a big financial hit from

the coronavirus pandemic.

JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America,

Citigroup and Goldman Sachs raised the funds

set aside for bad loans by nearly $20 billion

combined in the first quarter, earnings reports

released over the past two days show. And Wall

Street expects that figure may go even higher

next quarter, a possibility bank executives

acknowledged on earnings conference calls.

Bank of America and Citigroup said Wednesday

that their profits sank more than 40% in the first

quarter as both set aside billions for potentially

bad loans. A day earlier, JPMorgan Chase and

Wells Fargo reported even steeper drops in

profit as those banks also set aside large sums to

cover loan losses.

BANKS BRACE

FOR BIG LOAN

DEFAULTS BY

US, GLOBAL

CUSTOMERS