There is good news from the top four UK banks this week - all of them are reporting profits compared to the same time last year. Leading the pack was HSBC, with RBS finishing up the back of the group, respectively.

The four monster banks from high street are in stiff competition with one another, and the fight for most profitable remains the top priority. Here is how the interim report can be summed up for the big four:

HSBC Group nearly doubled its pre-tax profit from a year ago, bringing in 11.1 billion dollars compared with 5.02 billion dollars.

Barclays produced pre-tax profits of 3.95 billion pounds compared with 2.75 billion pounds a year ago.

Lloyds Group brought in 1.6 billion pounds of pre-tax profit compared with a 4 billion pound loss of last year.

RBS produced a pre-tax profit of 1.1 billion pounds against just 15 million pounds from last year.

Stock holders of both RBS and Lloyds will be satisfied to see that public stakes for the banks have been placed in the black for the first time since 2008.

Analysts are even projecting possible dividends from Lloyds Group late next year.

Banks can typically be considered favorable investments during any type of economic outlook period. Keeping this in consideration, the profitability of these four banks is positive, but look a little below the surface and a somewhat different picture is painted.

New mortgages for example are an important factor when checking the health of a bank. All of these banks have provided Loan to Value ratios on new mortgages at a value less than the national average, which is 71 per cent. This would be considered safe lending, which is smart business. It also suggests a strong recovery is far from happening.

As for small and medium sized businesses which are fundamentally going to lead to recovery, the banks report unchanged numbers in the rate of write-offs. This is a prime indicator most companies of this size are still struggling to pay off debt.

Profitability is a positive factor when looking at overall health, but the banking sector still has a lot of ground to make up to return to normal standing.