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New York - Bank of America reported a 70.2% increase in second quarter profits on Wednesday, fueled by strong trading and wealth management returns and better credit quality.
Earnings at the US giant came in at $3.6bn on revenues of $22.7bn, up from $2.1bn on $22bn in revenues a year earlier.
The results translated into profits of 32 cents per share, well above the 25 cents per share expected by analysts.
Earnings were particularly strong in global wealth and investment management, rising 38% to $758m. Bank of America cited higher asset management fees and client deposit inflows.
The other main area of strength was global markets, where equities sales and trading revenue rose to enable the division to nearly double profits at $959m.
At the same time, the bank warned that currency, fixed income and commodity trading was dragged down towards the end of the quarter by interest rate volatility following the June policy announcement by the US Federal Reserve.
Credit quality continued to improve, with the bank saying the number of delinquent loans declined across all major consumer portfolios. The provision for credit losses was $1.2bn, a decline of $562m.
The weakest area was consumer real estate services, where losses deepened from $744m to $937m. The size of the loan servicing portfolio declined and a rise in mortgage originations was offset by lower margins.
Chief Executive Bruce Thompson gave a sunny outlook on the economic recovery.
"We are doing more business with our customers and clients, and gaining momentum across every custom group we serve," Thompson said.
"We must keep improving, but with the consumer recovering and businesses strong, we have lots of opportunity ahead."
Bank of America shares were up 0.7% in premarket trading around 13:50.
