Declining real-estate markets in RBC Bank's Southern footprint drove down asset quality at the Raleigh-based lender during 2008.
Financials released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Thursday reveal that RBC Bank, the U.S. banking subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE: RY), saw its charge-offs for bad loans nearly quadruple, from $42 million on Dec. 31, 2007, to $167 million on Dec. 31, 2008.
RBC Bank also was hit by a 47 percent jump. to $671 million, in the number of loans on which borrowers were no longer making principal and interest payments. Of that $671 million, $609 million represented loans secured by real estate, up from $429 million a year earlier.
