US bank profits: repossessions rise

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Updated on 22 July 2009

By Channel 4 News

The bank that is repossessing homes by the hundred, turns a massive profit with bonuses to match. Faisal Islam reports.

Just six months ago, they were on the ropes, begging for government bailouts to survive.

But billions of taxpayer dollars later, America's banks are raking in bumper profits again.

Today the country's biggest home lender, Wells Fargo, one of America's 'big four', announced yet more record profits, although the number of bad loans also soared.

But with four million Americans facing repossession and unemployment surging to almost 10 per cent, there is growing anger with the banks.

Channel 4 News reports from Baltimore, once a property hotspot, now hit hard by the housing crisis.

Jon Snow interviews Scott Talbott of the Financial Services Roundtable, the body that represents America's largest banks.