Low Rates Pummel Banks: Borrowers Benefit, but Industry Lending Profits Hit Lowest Level in Three Years

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Superlow U.S. interest rates are squeezing bank profits, complicating the industry's nascent recovery from the financial crisis. An important gauge of lending profitability, known as net interest margin, has dropped to its lowest level in three years. The measure tracks how much banks earn when they borrow from depositors and then lend or invest those funds. The squeeze is the flip side of the Federal Reserve Board's four-year effort to revive the sluggish U.S. economy, with near-zero short-term interest rates and repeated rounds of bond purchases that aim to reduce long-term rates as well. Ten-year U.S. Treasury yields hit 1.43%

Great moments in central planning.