The profitability of New York state's commercial banks rose during the first quarter of 2010.

Data released Thursday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. shows that nearly 90 percent of all commercial banks in the state made money during the period ending March 31, compared with nearly 75 percent a year ago.

Specifically, 11.09 percent of commercial banks said they were unprofitable during the quarter. That's down from 23.85 percent reporting unprofitability during the same time last year, and 19.69 percent reporting unprofitability in the first quarter of 2008.

Yet total assets of the state's commercial banks fell 11.65 percent, from $547 billion a year ago to $484 billion as of March 31. Total deposits fell 3.91 percent, from $338 billion to $324 billion.

Nonperforming assets nearly doubled year over year, making up 1.14 percent of all assets. Meanwhile, noncurrent loans and leases made up 3.3 percent of all loans and leases, up from 2.08 percent last year.

On the employment side, the 126 institutions that participated listed 61,758 full-time equivalent workers, down from 62,757 full-time workers a year ago. There were 108 banks with assets of more than $100 million, while 18 have assets less than $100 million.

The data does not include the state's savings institutions.