The consumer banking arm of Bank of America has posted a net income of $1.5bn for the first quarter of 2015, up slightly compared with $1.46bn a year ago.
The increase in net income is driven by reductions in noninterest expense and provision for credit losses were partially offset by a decline in net interest income, the bank said.
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For the quarter ended 31 March 2015, the unit’s total revenue fell by 3% to $7.5bn from $7.65bn in the first quarter of 2014 due to lower net interest income from the allocation of the company’s market-related adjustments as well as lower card yields and card loan balances.
The divisions’ provision for credit losses fell $93m to $716m from $809m in the year-ago quarter, driven by continued improvement in credit quality.
The unit’s noninterest expense was $4.4bn, down from $4.49bn in the year-ago quarter as the company continued to optimize its delivery network.
For the quarter, the division’s average deposit balances was $531.4bn, up 5% from $504.8bn in the year-ago quarter.
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By GlobalDataThe bank said its client brokerage assets rose to $118.5bn, up 18%, from $100bn the year-ago quarter driven by new client accounts, strong account flows as well as market valuations.
Also, the company issued 1.2 million new credit cards in the first quarter of 2015, an increase of 13% from the one million cards issued in the year-ago quarter.
Additionally, the number of mobile banking customers at the division rose 13% to 16.9 million compared to the year-ago quarter, while consumers performing deposit transactions through mobile increased to 13% compared to 10% in the year-ago quarter.
The bank has closed 287 locations and added 27 locations since the first quarter of 2014, resulting in a total of 4,835 financial centers at the end of the first quarter of 2015.
The bank has reported a return on average allocated capital of 21% in the first quarter of 2015, compared to 20% in the same quarter last year.
Overall, the banking group reported net income of $3.4bn in the first quarter of 2015, compared to a loss of $276m a year ago.
