Discover Financial Services said its fiscal fourth-quarter profit fell 19 percent as the rate of bad loans increased.

Shares of the credit card lender fell $1.03, or 6.3 percent, to $15.39 in morning trading. The stock has ranged from $4.73 to $17.35 over the past year.

Discover’s provision for loan losses, or the amount it sets aside to cover bad loans, was $989 million, down from $1.11 billion in the same quarter a year ago but up from $924.4 million in the second quarter.

The company was one of hundreds of banks that received government assistance during the financial crisis. Unlike many large financial companies, however, Discover has yet to pay back the government. Earlier this week, Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc. announced stock offerings to raise the cash needed to repay the bailout loans.

The U.S. recession might be over, but the country and its bloodied banking sector are struggling to cope with overstretched families and billions in soured loans.

It all points to a troubled recovery for the world’s biggest economy, where the crisis began and flashed around the globe.

U.S. banks got into trouble lending too much to consumers during the boom years earlier this decade. Consumers used credit to finance a buying binge – for homes, cars and the like – and then banks watched helplessly as homes and other asset prices collapsed, starting in 2007.

Banks have tightened up their lending standards and no longer offer the kinds of no-strings-attached mortgages and other loans that were common during the real estate boom.