Bank of America\u2019s third-quarter profit dropped as it paid more to customers to hold their deposits, but its earnings beat estimates, driven by investment banking and trading.<\/p>\n
The gains echoed those at rival JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, which also benefited from better conditions for dealmaking as client sentiment improved.<\/p>\n
Investment banking fees jumped 18 per cent compared with a year earlier to US$1.4 billion as increasing confidence among clients spurred them to issue more debt and equity.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur customers\u2019 deposit balances and asset quality are healthy, and we believe we have good opportunities to grow,\u201d chief financial officer Alastair Borthwick told journalists.<\/p>\n
Regarding investment banking, Borthwick said, \u201cWe feel pretty good looking forward. We\u2019ve got a good pipeline.\u201d<\/p>\n
CEO Brian Moynihan called the earnings \u201csolid,\u201d citing growth in investment banking, asset management fees and sales and trading revenue. He predicted that the bank\u2019s interest income will start to improve after it reaches a trough this quarter.<\/p>\n
A revival in mergers and acquisitions also boosted BofA\u2019s advisory fees, while the Federal Reserve\u2019s interest rate cut last month could spur even more dealmaking.<\/p>\n
Shares were up almost 2 per cent in midday trading.<\/p>\n
BofA\u2019s underwriting income jumped 39.7 per cent in the quarter, while syndication fees rose 31 per cent.<\/p>\n
Moynihan said last month that he expected investment banking revenue to be broadly steady.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith capital markets driving the revenue upside, we expect more muted upside in the stock,\u201d wrote David George, an analyst at Robert W. Baird.<\/p>\n
Sales and trading revenue jumped 12 per cent to US$4.9 billion, the 10th consecutive quarter of year-on-year growth, as equities climbed 18 per cent while fixed income, currencies and commodities rose 8 per cent.<\/p>\n
Equities trading was bolstered by buoyant markets. Stocks rallied in the third quarter as investors speculated that the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates and spur economic activity.<\/p>\n
Wealth and investment management revenue climbed 8 per cent to US$5.8 billion and saw client balances jump 18 per cent to US$4.2 trillion thanks to rising market valuations and client flows.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bank seems to be saying that things are getting better for them and all the challenges that they have faced in the last couple of years are easing,\u201d said Dave Ellison, a portfolio manager at Hennessy Funds, which holds BofA stock.<\/p>\n
BofA\u2019s net interest income (NII) \u2013 the difference between what a bank earns on loans and pays out on deposits \u2013 fell 3 per cent to US$14 billion in the third quarter from a year earlier. But it climbed 2 per cent from the second quarter, marking an inflection point as the bank focuses on growing NII from here, Borthwick said.<\/p>\n
The bank expects its NII to be at US$14.3 billion or more in the fourth quarter, executives said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s going to set us up quite well\u201d for 2025, Borthwick said, as the bank reacted quickly to the Fed\u2019 rate cut.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe put ourselves in a good position to grow from here,\u201d Borthwick said.<\/p>\n
Chris Kotowski, an analyst at Oppenheimer, welcomed the NII guidance.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s \u201ca step in the right direction, and we\u2019re optimistic that the uptrend can continue,\u201d he wrote in a note.<\/p>\n
Banks have been paying out higher interest rates amid intense competition for deposits to prevent customers from fleeing to lucrative alternatives such as money market funds.<\/p>\n
BofA\u2019s provision for credit losses climbed to US$1.5 billion in the quarter from US$1.2 billion a year earlier.<\/p>\n
Higher interest rates are pressuring borrowers and increasing risks of defaults, prompting banks to build bigger provisions for cover for such loan losses.<\/p>\n
Still, US consumer credit is \u201cpretty good,\u201d while loan delinquencies and defaults have flattened out as expected, Borthwick said.<\/p>\n
The second-largest US bank\u2019s net income fell to US$6.9 billion, or 81 cents per share, from US$7.8 billion, or 90 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts on average expected BofA to earn 77 cents per share, according to estimates compiled by LSEG.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bank of America\u2019s third-quarter profit dropped as it paid more to customers to hold their deposits, but its earnings beat estimates, driven by investment banking and trading. The gains echoed those at rival JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, which also benefited from better conditions for dealmaking as client sentiment improved. Investment banking fees jumped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bez-rubriki"],"featured_image_src":{"landsacpe":["https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Bank-of-America-1-977x445.png",977,445,true],"list":["https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Bank-of-America-1-463x348.png",463,348,true],"medium":["https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Bank-of-America-1-300x200.png",300,200,true],"full":["https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Bank-of-America-1.png",977,650,false]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2700"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2702,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2700\/revisions\/2702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}