The Globe and Mail reports in its Monday edition that two themes have defined the big banks' financial results in recent quarters, slowing profit growth and rising provisions to cover bad loans to the energy sector. The Globe's David Berman writes that analysts figure profits among the Big Six banks will rise an anemic 1 per cent from last year and decline by 2 per cent from the previous quarter, due to sluggish lending, continuing low interest rates, and weak mergers and acquisitions activity. National Bank analyst Peter Rutledge says: "We have arrived at the conclusion that banks are essentially the new utilities. They provide investors with relatively safe dividends and a healthy yield but slow earnings growth." Nonetheless, expect some drama over the banks' exposure to the energy sector -- a simmering topic that gained new urgency after Canadian Western Bank and National Bank of Canada earlier this month set aside large provisions to cover bad loans to struggling oil and gas companies. Cormark analyst Meny Grauman says, "Although oil prices are well off their recent lows, there are growing indications that the recent rally is doing very little to improve the credit outlook for many oil producers."