Investors looking for loan growth and surging revenues at the biggest U.S. banks, including Citigroup Inc (C.N) are likely to be disappointed by first-quarter earnings. Banks have been generating most of their profits in recent quarters from dipping into money they had previously set aside to cover bad loans. Those reserve reductions make sense if credit losses are stabilizing, which seems to be the case. But banks cannot reduce their loan loss reserves forever, and at this point profit growth must come from making more money from loans and generating more fees, analysts said.
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