Bank of America reports profit as expenses fall

[April 15, 2015]  (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp, the No. 2 U.S. bank by assets, posted a first-quarter profit, narrowly beating analysts' estimates, as costs fell and the bank earned more from mortgage banking and investment and brokerage services.

BofA reported net income of $2.98 billion, or 27 cents per share, attributable to common shareholders compared with a loss of $514 million, or 5 cents per share, a year earlier.

The bank earned 30 cents per share, according to a Thomson Reuters calculation. This includes 6 cents per share from annual retirement eligible incentive costs but excludes 3 cents per share in charges from market-related net interest income.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of 29 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

BofA's shares were down 0.8 percent at $15.69 in premarket trading on Wednesday.

Non-interest expenses fell 29.4 percent to $15.7 billion. Mortgage banking revenue rose 68.4 percent to $694 million, while income from investment and brokerage services rose 3.3 percent to $3.38 billion.

Overall revenue, excluding certain adjustments, fell 5.9 percent to $21.42 billion.

(Reporting by Amrutha Gayathri and Anil D'Silva in Bangaluru; Editing by Ted Kerr)

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