In the first half of 2018, Bank of America reported a record first half with its net income of $13.7 billion.
The bank’s total revenue came in at $22.6 billion in the second quarter, which, while up 1% from $22.6 billion in the second quarter of 2017, was down from the first quarter’s revenue of $23.1 billion.
Bank of America pointed out that this included a $793 million pre-tax gain on the sale of its non-U.S. consumer card business. Excluding that sale, the company’s revenue was up by 3% from last year.
Net income also increased from last year, rising from $5.1 billion in the second quarter of 2017 to $6.8 billion in the second quarter this year. But this was also down from $6.9 billion in the first quarter this year.
This translated to diluted earnings per share of $0.63 in the second quarter, up from $0.44 in the second quarter last year and from $0.62 in the first quarter.
“We grew consumer and commercial loans; we grew deposits; we grew assets within our Merrill Edge business; we generated more net new households in Merrill Lynch; and we supported more institutional client activity — all of this while we continued to invest in our businesses and began an additional $500 million technology investment, which we intend to spend over the next several quarters, due to the benefits we received from tax reform,” said Brian Moynihan, Bank of America chairman and CEO. “Even while making investments in people, technology, new markets and real estate, we managed to lower expenses again this period.”
But these increases were made in the face of lower revenue from the bank’s mortgage banking income, which the bank explained offset its increase of 2% or $43 million in non-interest income.
But in the residential mortgage sector, the bank reported an interest income of $1.8 billion, up from $1.78 billion in the first quarter this year and from $1.7 billion in the second quarter of 2017.
The bank is also becoming more confident in its mortgage lending as it reduces its allocation of the allowance for credit losses for residential mortgages. In the second quarter, Bank of America allotted $553 million, or 5.5% of total residential mortgages, to its allowance for credit losses. That’s down from $611 million or 5.96% of loans in the the first quarter and $901 million or 8.28% of all loans in the second quarter last year.
