Commercial and industrial loans at U.S. banks and thrifts reached $1.989 trillion as of Sept. 30, up $6.95 billion from the second quarter. Delinquent C&I loans fell to 1.27% of total C&I loans, down 9 basis points from the linked quarter and 32 basis points year over year.

The nation's largest C&I lender, Bank of America Corp., added $8.36 billion in C&I loans during the quarter, more than any other bank in the country, pushing its total C&I balance to $268.87 billion as of Sept. 30. The bank's C&I delinquency ratio also fell to 0.67%, down 23 basis points year over year.

Morgan Stanley added $2.97 billion to its C&I portfolio during the quarter, pushing it to $20.58 billion as of Sept. 30. Although Morgan Stanley's delinquency ratio did fall 147 basis points from the previous quarter and 54 basis points year over year to 5.81%, it was still the 6th highest ratio among all lenders with at least $1 billion in C&I loans.

Three other companies added more than $1 billion in C&I loans during the third quarter as well, including American Express Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc.

Among banks and thrifts with more than $1 billion in C&I loans, Plano, Texas-based Beal Financial Corp. continued to post the highest C&I delinquency ratio in the country at 10.21% as of Sept. 30, although this was down from 10.66% at June 30 and 12.86% a year ago. New York-based Signature Bank had the second-highest ratio at 9.31%, up 3.32 percentage points from a year ago.

Did you enjoy this analysis? Click here to set-up real-time alerts for data-driven articles on the U.S. financial sector. S&P Global compiles C&I data based on loans reported in call reports and Form Y-9s. Click here to see the aggregated data for commercial banks. For other Data Dispatches on loan growth in the third quarter, click here for a look at small banks and here for an analysis of larger institutions.