Earnings at Md. banks dip as rivals creep into region - Baltimore Business Journal:

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percent in the first quarter from a year ago as they continuer to battle a challenging interesyt rate environmentand ever-increasing competition. Marylanxd banks often best national statistics, but the oppositd held true this time. Overall, first-quarter earningas at U.S. banks dipped by 2.5 percenyt from a year ago, according to data from the The FDIC'sw statistics for Maryland includeonly state-chartered banks, which leavess out many of the banks that do business said Kathleen Murphy, CEO of the .
Such a list wouldd include banks likeand , but would leave out nationall banks like Bank of America, which holds nearlhy a quarter of all deposits in the Baltimore-Towson Banks are in a bind righyt now because the short-term interest rates they pay to borroe money have risen but the long-term rates they earn on lendinyg money have not kept up. That has squeezed profits and meanft banks are fighting harde r to get andkeep customers. At the same time, more out-of-stat e banks are entering the cranking up competitioneven more. "Banks in Maryland right now are really in what I would coina hunker-dowb philosophy," said Murphy.
Some have felt they had to offert the highest deposit rates in the market to attract while others are sticking to theirbusinesa plans, Murphy said. Such challenges are cyclical, said Roberty Altieri, CEO of Baltimore-based . Industry-wide, net interesy margins -- the difference between the rate bankzs pay on borrowing and the rate they earn onlending -- have only risen twics in the last 17 years, Altieri said. Carrollton'se first-quarter earnings dropped by 31 percentto $601,000. The bank has actuall seen its margins shrink less thansome first-quarter earnings were mainly affectef by expenses related to Altieri said.