Bank of America beats quarterly forecasts

Bank of America posted stronger-than-expected quarterly figures, boosted by its consumer and global banking units.

Total revenues grew 7% to $22.8bn, with net interest income ahead by 9% to $11.0bn, with the latter benefiting from higher interest rates and loan growth, the company said in a statement.

In parallel, net income increased 10% to $5.3bn, for earnings per share of 46 cents in comparison to 41 cents one year ago.

Analysts had projected EPS of 43 cents on $21.78bn of sales.

BofA chief Brian Moynihan highlighted the improvement seen in the lender's efficiency ratio, which reached 60%, and its plans to return $17.0bn in capital over the next four quarters.

Credit loss provisions decreased 26% to $726m and net charge-offs by 8% to $908m.

At Consumer Banking, net income was 21% higher to $2.0bn driven by a 9% rise in revenues to $8.5bn, while in Global Baking it grew 19% to $1.8bn on a 7% jump in revenues to $5.0bn.

Net income at the lender's Global Wealth and Investment Management unit was up 14% to $804m.