Bank Of America Profit Beats Expectations As Legal Expenses Fall

Source: thewillnigeria.com

Bank of America Corp, the No. 2 U.S. bank by assets, reported a better-than-expected first-quarter profit, reversing from a year-earlier loss, as legal costs fell steeply and the bank earned more from mortgage lending.

BofA reported a surprise loss in the year-earlier quarter after taking a charge of $6 billion for legal costs.

Litigation expenses fell to $370 million in the latest quarter, suggesting again that the worst of the bank's legal troubles may be over.

BofA has paid at least $70 billion so far to settle legal issues related to the financial crisis, undermining cost-cutting initiatives introduced by Chief Executive Brian Moynihan since he took the bank's top job in 2010.

The bank's non-interest expenses fell 29.4 percent to $15.7 billion in the quarter ended March 31.

“At a time of continued low interest rates, we had good expense control…,” Moynihan said in a statement on Wednesday.

However, analysts said more needs to be done.
“Core expenses were a little worse than expected,” Jefferies analyst Ken Usdin said in a client note.

BofA reported net income of $2.98 billion, or 27 cents per share, attributable to common shareholders compared with a loss of $514 million, or 5 cents per share, a year earlier.

Including a charge of 6 cents per share for retirement eligible incentives and excluding a charge of 3 cents per share for market-related net interest income adjustments, BofA earned 30 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

On that basis, the bank beat the average analyst estimate of 29 cents per share by 1 cent.

BofA shares were little changed at $15.81 in early trading.

Revenue from the bank's bond trading unit fell 6.8 percent to $2.75 billion. In contrast, JPMorgan Chase & Co reported a 5 percent rise in revenue from that business.

Revenue from currency trading doubled, however, helped by the Swiss central bank's shock move in January to remove the franc's cap against the euro, which set off frenzied trading.

BofA joined Wells Fargo & Co and JPMorgan Chase in reporting better results from mortgage lending as mortgage rates slipped to near two-year lows.

Mortgage banking revenue increased 68.4 percent to $694 million, while income from investment and brokerage services rose 3.3 percent to $3.38 billion.

Overall revenue, excluding adjustments, fell 5.9 percent to $21.42 billion. Both JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo reported revenue gains on Tuesday.

REUTERS