Short answer: At June 30, 2026, the median FDIC-insured bank had nonperforming loans equal to 0.47% of total loans, across 4,203 banks. The middle half ran from 0.12% to 1.17%. Of those banks, 480 (11.4%) reported no nonperforming loans at all, while 28.7% were above 1%, 12.7% above 2% and 6.3% above 3%. What counts as normal shifts with size: the median is 0.38% for banks with $100M to $300M in assets and 0.85% for banks over $100B. Read the ratio beside reserves, too. Among banks with any nonperforming loans, the median allowance for credit losses was 200.76% of those loans.
What the ratio counts
The ratio on this page adds two balances from Schedule RC-N (Past Due and Nonaccrual Loans, Leases, and Other Assets): loans on nonaccrual, and loans 90 days or more past due that are still accruing interest. We divide the sum by total loans and leases from Schedule RC-C Part I, all as of quarter end.
Under the call report instructions for Schedule RC-N, a loan goes on nonaccrual when the bank doesn't expect full payment of principal or interest, or keeps the loan on a cash basis because the borrower's financial condition has deteriorated. It also goes there once principal or interest has been in default for 90 days or more, unless the loan is both well secured and in the process of collection.
Two things stay out. Loans 30 days or more past due but not yet at 90 have their own column on RC-N, and foreclosed real estate is no longer a loan; the Texas ratio adds it in and sets the total against capital and reserves.
The population is the 4,238 FDIC-insured banks and savings institutions that filed for June 30, 2026, the same count the FDIC's Quarterly Banking Profile gives for the second quarter. That's the 4,296 call report filers less 58 non-deposit trust companies, which take no deposits and make almost no loans. The ratio can be computed for 4,203 of them.
What's normal at each asset size
| Bank size (total assets) | Banks | Lower quartile | Median | Upper quartile | 90th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All banks | 4,203 | 0.12% | 0.47% | 1.17% | 2.30% |
| Under $100M | 524 | 0.00% | 0.46% | 1.68% | 3.35% |
| $100M to $300M | 1,208 | 0.05% | 0.38% | 1.19% | 2.37% |
| $300M to $1B | 1,429 | 0.13% | 0.43% | 1.09% | 2.26% |
| $1B to $3B | 624 | 0.19% | 0.48% | 1.10% | 1.82% |
| $3B to $10B | 261 | 0.30% | 0.60% | 1.05% | 1.90% |
| $10B to $100B | 125 | 0.46% | 0.66% | 0.96% | 1.66% |
| Over $100B | 32 | 0.61% | 0.85% | 1.11% | 1.45% |
Source: BankingLens, computed from FFIEC call reports for the quarter ending June 30, 2026. Every bank in each band with a ratio, not a sample.
The medians sit in a fairly narrow range, from 0.38% for banks with $100M to $300M in assets, the lowest of any band, to 0.85% over $100B. Size shows at the ends. Under $100M, where the tail is widest, the lower quartile is 0.00% and the 90th percentile 3.35%; over $100B the same two figures are 0.61% and 1.45%.
Small loan books are lumpy. At least a quarter of banks under $100M report nothing, or next to nothing, as nonperforming. One farm operating line or one commercial property can take a small bank from a clean report to the top tenth of its band, and back again once the credit is worked out. At the other end, nine in ten banks over $100B are at 0.20% or more, and a large retail book always has some borrowers 90 days behind.
This is where the all-bank median misleads. A bank with $100M to $300M in assets at the national median of 0.47% is above its own band's median of 0.38%. A bank with $10B to $100B at the same 0.47% is barely above its band's lower quartile of 0.46%.
A slow climb since early 2023
The median ratio went from 0.24% at March 31, 2023, to 0.47% at June 30, 2026. It rose in every quarter but two, slipping from 0.28% to 0.27% at the end of 2023 and holding at 0.35% at the end of 2024.
| Year | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 0.24% | 0.25% | 0.28% | 0.27% |
| 2024 | 0.30% | 0.32% | 0.35% | 0.35% |
| 2025 | 0.38% | 0.41% | 0.43% | 0.44% |
| 2026 | 0.46% | 0.47% |
Source: BankingLens, computed from FFIEC call reports. Median at each quarter end, FDIC-insured filers only.
The quartiles moved with it, the lower from 0.04% to 0.12% and the upper from 0.66% to 1.17%. A few large problem credits at a handful of banks would hardly move a median, let alone both quartiles, so this rise is spread across the typical bank rather than concentrated in a few loan books.
The call report can't tell you why. At your own bank it can tell you where: RC-N breaks past due and nonaccrual balances out by loan category, and the column for loans 30 days or more past due but not yet at 90 is the early read on next quarter's ratio. The count of banks also fell from 4,633 to 4,203, so part of the change may reflect which banks are left.
Why the industry figure runs higher
Summed in dollars, $89.8 billion of loans were on nonaccrual at June 30 and $39.8 billion were 90 days or more past due and still accruing, on $13,936.3 billion of total loans. That's an aggregate ratio of 0.93%, against the median bank's 0.47%. Dollar weighting hands the result to the largest banks, and the median for banks over $100B is 0.85%.
Nonaccrual loans are 69.3% of those nonperforming dollars. Watch the split at your own bank: a loan in the 90-day column is still accruing, so interest the borrower hasn't paid is still being booked as income. When that column carries a balance from one quarter to the next, ask how far along the collection really is.
The FDIC's Quarterly Banking Profile now leads with a broader rate, loans 30 or more days past due or on nonaccrual: 1.44% of loans in the second quarter, down 9 basis points from the first. It is dollar-weighted and counts early delinquencies our ratio leaves out, so don't benchmark one bank's NPL ratio against it. In the same quarter our median rose from 0.46% to 0.47%. The QBP publishes aggregates, some of them by asset size, but not distributions, so it can't tell a bank where it ranks among banks its size.
Coverage says more than the ratio
The nonperforming ratio says how much of the book is in trouble, not whether the bank has already reserved for it. Coverage does: the allowance for credit losses divided by the same nonaccrual and 90-day accruing balances.
| Allowance for credit losses as a share of | Banks | 10th percentile | Lower quartile | Median | Upper quartile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nonperforming loans | 3,724 | 49.24% | 93.1% | 200.76% | 519.18% |
| Total loans | 4,205 | 0.75% | 0.98% | 1.19% | 1.44% |
Source: BankingLens, computed from FFIEC call reports for the quarter ending June 30, 2026. Coverage of nonperforming loans is measured only at banks that have some.
A quarter of the 3,724 banks with any nonperforming loans hold less allowance than they have nonperforming loans, and one in ten are at 49.24% or below. Take two banks at 1.17% nonperforming, the upper quartile. One carries the median allowance of 1.19% of loans, so its reserve is already larger than its whole nonperforming book. The other sits at the 10th percentile for reserves, 0.75% of loans. The headline ratio is identical, but if those loans end in losses, the second bank is counting on collateral to do far more of the work.
Coverage below 100% isn't automatically a shortfall. The allowance covers credit losses across the whole loan book, and a nonaccrual loan secured by real estate with a current appraisal may need little reserve of its own. A low figure is a reason to test the collateral behind the largest nonaccrual relationships. At the other extreme, where almost nothing is nonperforming, coverage runs to 1,797.75% at the 90th percentile and adds nothing the NPL ratio hadn't said.
Frost Bank against its peer group
Frost Bank, the San Antonio bank on our public sample scorecard, reported a nonperforming loan ratio of 0.55% at June 30. Next to the national median of 0.47% that looks a shade worse than typical; next to banks its size it looks better. The median for banks with $10B to $100B in assets is 0.66%, and in its FFIEC peer group of 116 commercial banks in that range Frost is at the 62nd peer group percentile, meaning a lower ratio than most peers. The sample scorecard shows the ratio and that percentile.
Reading your own ratio
- Compare with your size band, then your FFIEC peer group. The UBPR shows your percentile rank and a peer group average that drops banks above the 95th and below the 5th percentile. On a ratio this lopsided the percentile is the better guide, since even a trimmed average gets pulled toward the long upper tail.
- Judge your trend against the median's own climb. A ratio that rose from 0.24% to 0.47% since early 2023 has only kept pace.
- Put it beside capital. The Texas ratio sets nonperforming loans and foreclosed real estate against capital plus reserves; the tier 1 leverage ratio shows the capital behind the whole balance sheet.
- If commercial real estate is a big share of the book, test it against the 2006 interagency concentration screens. A nonperforming ratio reports problems only once they've arrived.
Frequently asked questions
What is a normal nonperforming loan ratio for a bank?
At June 30, 2026, the median FDIC-insured bank had nonperforming loans equal to 0.47% of total loans, and the middle half of banks ran between 0.12% and 1.17%. Normal depends on size: the median was 0.38% for banks with $100M to $300M in assets and 0.85% for banks over $100B.
What counts as a nonperforming loan?
A loan on nonaccrual, or a loan 90 days or more past due that is still accruing interest, both reported on call report Schedule RC-N. Loans less than 90 days past due and foreclosed real estate are not counted.
What is a high NPL ratio for a bank?
Nationally, 28.7% of banks were above 1% at June 30, 2026, 12.7% were above 2% and 6.3% were above 3%. Size changes the answer: the 90th percentile was 3.35% for banks under $100M in assets but 1.66% for banks with $10B to $100B.
How much allowance should cover nonperforming loans?
The allowance is set for expected credit losses on the whole loan book, not as a multiple of nonperforming loans. Among banks with any nonperforming loans, the median allowance was 200.76% of them and the lower quartile 93.1%. Coverage under 100% can be reasonable for well-secured loans, but it calls for a look at the collateral.
Are nonperforming loans rising in 2026?
Slowly, for the median bank: 0.44% at the end of 2025, 0.46% at March 31, 2026 and 0.47% at June 30, 2026, against 0.24% in the first quarter of 2023. The FDIC's broader past-due-and-nonaccrual rate, a dollar-weighted aggregate, fell 9 basis points in the second quarter to 1.44%.
Where these numbers come from
Every BankingLens figure on this page is computed from FFIEC call reports for the quarter ending June 30, 2026, or the earlier quarters in the trend table; the FDIC's own rate is linked where it appears. Nothing is modeled or sampled. You can see the nonperforming loan ratio for a real bank, ranked against its FFIEC peer group, on the sample scorecard for Frost Bank. Plans that cover your state or every bank start at $29 a month (pricing).