There's been a lot of near-euphoria over the strong bank earnings posted by the likes of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and even Citigroup and Bank of America. But most people realize that in the case of the latter two especially, sustaining such performance will be exceedingly difficult.

As noted by Bloomberg, Moody's has issued a report noting that at U.S. banks' "large loan losses have yet to be recognized in the banking system. We expect to see rising provisioning needs well into 2010." The economy may well improve but perhaps not enough to stave off the need for more reserves to cover commercial real estate exposures and credit card losses. Moody's says U.S. banks "may incur" up to $470 billion of losses and writedowns by the end of 2010--Ouch. 

For more:
- here's the Bloomberg article

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