Banks Made Almost $3 Billion On Insurance In 2001: Survey

NU Online News Service, Sept. 6, 12:25 p.m. – More than 4,200 U.S. banks, or about half of those participating in a new Michael White Associates survey, report insurance fee income totaling $2.98 billion in 2001.

The White firm, a Radnor, Pa. insurance consultant to banks, found that banks with more than $10 billion in assets accounted for 59.5%, or almost $1.8 billion, of total bank insurance fee income in 2001. Institutions with under $10 billion in assets recorded over $1.2 billion, or 40.5%, of this income and earned 14.2% more fee income from insurance than from investments, White reports.

Banks with assets under $100 million recorded the highest mean and median ratios of insurance fee income to noninterest income and attained the second-highest mean ratio and highest median ratio of insurance fee income to net operating revenue, the survey found.