The six largest U.S. banks appear to be bouncing back strongly from the financial crisis, based on their 2013 earnings.

JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley together earned $76 billion last year, according to The Wall Street Journal.

That's only $6 billion below their combined record, which was set in 2006 amid the peak of the housing boom and strong economic growth.

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"The industry is back," Gerard Cassidy, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, told The Journal. Banks "should break all records" for profits this year, he said.

Much of the improved performance has stemmed from cutbacks, according to The Journal. The six banks trimmed their payrolls by more than 44,000 people in the last year.

Goldman Sachs curbed its workers' compensation to 36.9 percent of its revenue last year, the lowest ratio in four years, according to the paper.

Banks also are benefiting from cutting their loan-loss reserves, as fewer loans go bad, The Journal noted. Those loan-loss reserve reductions accounted for 16 percent of the six banks' pre-tax income in the fourth quarter.

To be sure, not everyone sees nirvana for the banks at this point.

"Although big-bank earnings reports show that this part of the financials sector is on the mend, we still have a long way to go to before banks are growing profit with higher revenue, and not just with beneficial accounting rules," such as those on loan-loss reserves, writes Dan Burrows of InvestorPlace.

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