Kansas banks had a disappointing first six months, but it was a lot better than banks nationwide.

That's according to a report this week by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Kansas banks' net income was $295 million in the first half of 2008, compared with $324 million in the same period a year ago, according to the FDIC's State Banking Performance Summary.

That's a 9 percent decrease.

Nationally, banks' net income fell 53 percent when comparing the first six months of 2007 and 2008.

Kansas banks also had a better pre-tax return on assets than national banks.

Pretax ROA -- a standard bank performance measure that shows how much money a bank earns for each $100 it has in assets -- for Kansas banks was 1.38 percent in the first half of the year.

For national banks it was 0.77 percent.

"Return on assets is still above 1 (percent), which is good," said Rick LeCompte, a Wichita State University finance professor.

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