Bank of America said that its net income has increased by 32% to $7.16bn in the third quarter of 2018, compared to $5.42bn reported during the same period in the previous year.
Image: Bank of America Q3 2018 net income grew 32% to $7.2bn. Photo: courtesy of Bank of America.
The increase in the net income was due to continuing strong operating leverage and asset quality along with the benefit of tax reform, said Bank of America.
The banking group’s diluted earnings per share increased by 43%.
Bank of America chief financial officer Paul Donofrio said that for 12 consecutive quarters, the bank’s average deposits have increased year-over-year by over $40bn.
In the consumer banking sector, the multinational investment bank and financial services company’s net income increased 49% to $3.1bn compared to Q3 2017 net income of $2.08bn.
Loans for the reported period grew by 6% to $285bn while deposits rose 4% to $688bn in Q3 2018, in comparison to Q3 2017.
Bank of America said that it has 25.9 million active mobile banking users at the time of the Q3 2018 results.
The banking group’s global wealth and investment management division reported a net income of $1.0bn, an increase of 31%, compared to $770m for the same period last year. The unit’s loans moved up 5% to $162bn in the reported quarter.
Bank of America said that the net income of its global banking unit was up by 13% to $1.99bn in Q3, compared to the net income of $1.76bn reported in the same period last year. While loans grew 2% to $353bn, deposits moved up by 7% to $338bn.
The US banking firm said that its global markets division fetched it a net income of $912m in Q3 2018, which is an increase of 21% to its Q3 2017 earnings of $756m.
Bank of America chairman and CEO Brian Moynihan said: “Responsible growth, backed by a solid U.S. economy and a healthy U.S. consumer, combined to deliver the highest quarterly pre-tax earnings in our company’s history.
“This marks the 15th consecutive quarter of positive operating leverage, driven by continued growth in deposits, client balances in wealth management, solid loan growth, and disciplined expense management.”
For Q2 2018, the net income of Bank of America was $6.8bn, which was an increase of 33% compared to $5.1bn for the same period last year.