Bank of America Corp. reported a bigger-than-expected fourth-quarter profit on Friday, helped by a surge in net interest income as the U.S. Federal Reserve raised rates through most of last year.
The ‘higher-for-longer’ rate environment to battle decades-high inflation has underpinned profits at consumer banks, with analysts expecting those gains to peak in 2023 and help offset sluggish dealmaking as well as bigger loan loss provisions.
Bank of America’s net interest income (NII), which reflects how much money the bank makes from charging interest to customers, jumped 29 percent to $14.7 billion in the quarter.
Its profit applicable to common shareholders rose 2 percent to $6.9 billion, or 85 cents per share. Analysts, on average, had estimated a profit of 77 cents per share, according to Refinitiv IBES data….