Bank of America (BAC) said Wednesday that its second-quarter net income rose 63% to $4.0 billion, or $0.32 per share, from $2.5 billion, or $0.19 per share, a year ago, which beat analysts' estimates. Revenue improved 3% to $22.9 billion from $22.2 billion last year.
"We are doing more business with our customers and clients, and gaining momentum across every customer group we serve," said CEO Brian Moynihan, in a press release. "We must keep improving, but with the consumer recovering and businesses strong, we have lots of opportunity ahead.
The bank cut expenses about 6% to $16 billion. It also trimmed close to 7% of its positions over the past 12 months and now has some 257,000 employees.
"At the beginning of the year, we said we would focus on three things revenue stability, strengthening the balance sheet and managing costs," said CFO Bruce Thompson, in a statement. "This quarter, we delivered on all three. Revenue increased 3%, we continued to build capital ratios, despite the negative impact of higher interest rates on our bond portfolio, and we reduced expenses related to servicing delinquent mortgage loans at a faster rate than we originally expected."
Wealth Management
BofA-Merrill Lynch's Global Wealth and Investment Management unit increased its net income 38% from the second quarter of 2012 to $758 million. In addition, its pretax margin was 28% in the recent period vs. 21% in the year-ago quarter.
Revenue grew 10% year over year to $4.5 billion. The results were driven by "higher asset management fees related to higher market levels and long-term AUM flows, higher transactional revenue and higher net interest income," the company says.
