Foreign bank branches turned around two quarters of losses in the March 2009 quarter, data published yesterday by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority show.Branches recorded an aggregate profit of $476 million in the March 2009 quarter, up from a loss of $705 million in the December 2008 quarter and a loss of $362 million in the September 2008 quarter. Over the 12 months to March 2009 foreign bank branches still incurred a loss of $575 million.While reported a long time after the event, the APRA data on foreign banks are the only sector-wide data on foreign bank branches.Gross loans of foreign bank branches were $90.2 billion, a decline from $97 billion at December 2008 but more than the four prior quarters.The debate over whether foreign banks are willing lenders in Australia has largely faded in any event, thanks to the stabilisation of troubled banks offshore and amid moderately encouraging economic indicators and confirmation of ambitious investment plans in the resources sector.Provisions reported by APRA for all foreign bank branches improved slightly over the quarter to $1.8 billion from $1.9 billion three months earlier.The aggregate profit for foreign bank subsidiaries fell to $159 million in the March 2009 quarter, down from $181 million in the December 2008 quarter, largely thanks to a rise in the charge for bad debts to $131 million from $109 million.The return on equity for foreign banks (at 9.3 per cent) and return on assets (at 0.6 per cent) improved slightly over the December quarter.