Baltimore banks see drop in nonperforming loans

Staff Reporter- Baltimore Business Journal | Baltimore-area banks are seeing a sharp drop in nonperforming loans as the real estate market strengthens and the economy continues to improve. More than half of the banks headquartered in the Baltimore-Towson area — 27 out of 43 — saw nonperforming assets drop from first-quarter 2012 to first-quarter 2013, according to data from SNL Financial, a data analysis firm. Shrinking nonperforming assets is important to a bank’s bottom line because it boosts...