from Zero Hedge
For many years after the financial crisis, US commercial banks were mocked when instead of generating earnings the old-fashioned way, by collecting the interest arb on loans they had made, or even by frontrunning the Fed with their prop (and flow) trading desks, they would “earn” their way to just above consensus estimates by releasing some of their accumulated loan loss reserves, an accounting gimmick if there ever was one, which would end up boosting the bottom line thanks to a few “kitchen sink” quarters in the aftermath of the Lehman bankruptcy. The thinking here went that having suffered massive losses during the financial crisis, when all banks suffered crushing losses so they would then get bailed out, these same banks would then “recoup” billions in losses over time that would be run through the income statement as a reversal of accrued loss provisions.