Banks see higher corporate loan demand

A U.S. flag flies above Wells Fargo & Co headquarters in San Francisco, California in this April 22, 2009 file photo.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) and US Bancorp (USB.N), two of the largest U.S. banks, reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings and said corporate loan demand is rising.

US Bancorp reported its first quarterly rise in total commercial loans since the end of 2008. Wells Fargo also reported a quarterly increase in commercial lending, reversing a multi-quarter contraction.

The pickup in corporate borrowing was slight -- about a 1 percent quarterly increase in total commercial loans at each bank -- but it could be a sign that investor fears of another economic downturn are misplaced.

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo said borrowing demand picked up in areas including capital equipment financing and loans to small businesses.

JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), which reported a jump in third-quarter earnings a week earlier, and Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), which reported a third-quarter profit on Tuesday, also signaled commercial loan demand is rising.

"We've heard it from enough companies now to believe loan demand is there," said Nancy Bush, analyst at NAB Research. "It's embryonic, it may just be a glimmer, but it's there, apparently."

Still, Bush noted there are plenty of headwinds for the banks in the form of regulatory changes that have damped consumer banking profits and concerns over foreclosures and mortgage documentation that have dragged down banks' shares recently.

Wells Fargo executives told analysts the bank is in a better position with regard to possible mortgage issues than its larger peers, because it sold fewer of its mortgages to private investors.

That reassurance, analysts said, helped Well Fargo shares rise nearly 5 percent to $25.75 in late afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange. US Bancorp investors were less worried by mortgage issues given that bank's smaller mortgage servicing business. Its shares were unchanged at $22.81 in late trading.

The broader KBW Banks Index .BKX was down 0.3 percent on Wednesday.

MORTGAGES

U.S. banks have come under fire in recent weeks for filing faulty foreclosure documents with courts. Some imposed a temporary halt to home seizures while they reviewed their foreclosure process.

US Bancorp and Wells Fargo said they have no plans to halt home seizures and are confident in their foreclosure processes.

Wells Fargo also sought to allay concerns that beset Bank of America on Tuesday, after that bank said it was not sure how many billions of dollars in mortgages it might have to buy back from investors because of faulty documentation.

Wells Fargo said mortgage repurchase demands have fallen in the last two quarters.

DIVERGING REVENUES

Both banks said they are seeing lower loan losses, but US Bancorp continued to add to its cushion against future bad loans, while Wells Fargo released $650 million from its loss reserve.

The two banks' loan loss trends were similar, but their revenues diverged.

US Bancorp, bolstered by its large fee-based businesses, said quarterly revenue rose 8 percent.

Wells Fargo, the fourth-largest U.S. bank, reported a 7 percent decline in revenue, hurt by regulatory changes and lower gains on investments.

Minneapolis-based US Bancorp said profit climbed more than 50 percent to $908 million, or 45 cents a share, from $603 million, or 30 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts on average expected earnings of 43 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Wells Fargo reported that earnings increased to $3.34 billion from $3.24 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share rose to 60 cents from 56 cents in the year-earlier period and beating analysts' average expectations of 55 cents a share.

(Reporting by Elinor Comlay, additional reporting by Joe Rauch; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Matthew Lewis)