Big banks are the companies whose stock prices plummeted the most after the financial crisis hit in 2008. The six biggest have piled up more than $100 billion in legal costs. One of them, Bank of America, has been booted from the Dow Jones Industrial Average. And big banks are widely cast as the villains of the 2007–2009 Great Recession. So what’s the verdict on big banks now? Their stock prices, which have jumped overall by 260% since the market hit bottom in March 2009, could soar for years. Two of them, Bank of America and Citigroup, could double within three years.

The reasons: The biggest threats—trillions of dollars in toxic mortgage loans and the continuing doubts about whether financial institutions could survive another economic meltdown—have been contained. Home foreclosures in August dropped 34% from a year ago, and 94% of major banks passed the Federal Reserve’s 2013 stress test. Most important, the industry is making a staggering amount of money, aided by slow but steady growth in the economy. For 15 quarters in a row, overall bank earnings have increased year-over-year, including $141 billion in earnings in 2012. With growth in mortgage and business loans having picked up, operating costs declining and the interest rates that banks charge on long-term loans rising, they will break that record this year.

Two attractive bank stocks now: Bank of America (BAC), whose stock price plunged 90% before rebounding some, has done an excellent job of shoring up its balance sheet and recently won Federal Reserve approval to buy back as much as $5 billion in its stock shares…and Citigroup (C), whose stock plunged 95%, is cutting expenses by $900 million and is generating loan demand faster than other US banks because of its big presence overseas.

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