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Two of America's most troubled banks gave evidence today that the financial crisis is far from over.
Bank of America and Citigroup -which between them have taken US government funds of $90 billion just to stay afloat - both managed to report a profit for the second quarter.
But fears remain for the future. Analysts say there are still concerns about the true value of assets held on the banks' balance sheet, which have been written down - but not, some argue, by enough.
Bad debts are still rising and many more borrowers are likely to default as unemployment grows.
Bank of America made $3.2 billion (£2 billion) in the last three months - that's down by 5% on a year ago but a little better than Wall Street was expecting.
That profit will help to boost its financial strength and ease the pressure on chief executive Ken Lewis.
He was stripped of the chairman's role by shareholders recently, and is facing a congressional probe into the BoA deal to acquire Merrill Lynch.
He has been accused of withholding information about the losses mounting at Merrill while the deal was being done.
Citigroup managed to break a losing streak by reporting its first profit - $4.3 billion - for seven quarters.
That profit is largely down to an $11 billion gain from merging its broking arm Smith Barney with Morgan Stanley.
Citi chief executive Vikram Pandit said: "For many quarters, we have been consistently and successfully executing our plan to build financial strength."
Revenues were up by $12 billion to $30 billion.
Pandit has also been under intense scrutiny from regulators and the government.
Unlike Goldman Sachs, Citi has not been able to repay the funds it has taken from the US Treasury, meaning it must operate under restrictions limiting how much risk it is able to take.
Some analysts think the worst of the banking crisis is now past.
Bill Andrews of McKee said of Bank of America: "Their capital issues are mostly behind them."
Walter Todd at Greenwood Capital Associates said: "It's hard to say whether they've completely turned the corner, but they are heading in that direction.
"For both Bank of America and Citi, it is kind of a mixed bag. They both seem to reserve a lot for credit losses in all parts of the business."
Citigroup shed 30,000 jobs in the quarter as it moved to cut costs.
It now employs 279,000 worldwide, 96,000 below the highest level.
