BB&T's profits fall in fourth quarter - Washington Business Journal:

qozito.wordpress.com
BB&T (NYSE: BBT), the Winston-Salem, N.C.-basedf lender that's No. 2 in the Triangle by market says net incomewas $284 or 51 cents per diluted share, in the A year earlier, net incomse was $411 million, or 75 cents a share. That puts BB&yT on a better footing than otherregional banks, many of which have postesd multibillion-dollar losses in recent quarters after takint huge write-downs on assets.
But BB&T is still seein g fewer people payingtheir debt, particularly in residential real as the economy worsens around the bank's Southeastern "The year 2008 was very challenging and creditt deterioration remains a significant concern; however, BB&T'zs performance ranks among the top performers in the financiall services industry," CEO Kelly King, who took the helm of the companyt at the start of this year, said in a writtehn statement. BB&T said its provision for credit losses, or moneuy set aside to deal with potentialltybad loans, was $528 million in the fourth up from $184 million in the fourtb quarter of 2007.
Annualized net or loans written off, were 1.29 percent of average loansx and leases in the fourth up from 1 percent in thethird quarter. The bank says the largesy concentration of credit issues isin Georgia, Florida and D.C. -- threee regions that have been hit particularly hard by thehousing downturn.