Bank of America Corp. reported its highest profit in “nearly a decade,” CEO Brian Moynihan said, as the embattled company seems to have put the storm of litigation costs behind it as it aims to raise its profile in the banking industry.
The company reported $82.5 billion in net revenue for 2015, with net income of $15.9 billion, far surpassing the $4.8 billion net income from 2014. Its income has been weak for many years as a result of prolonged litigation, and the last time it reported net income this high was in 2006, when the company reported $21 billion in net income.
For the fourth quarter of 2015, the company reported $19.53 billion in revenue, an increase of 4.3 percent. Net income for the quarter was up 9 percent to $3.3 billion.
The company reported net interest income of $39.25 billion for the year, and non-interest income of $43.26 billion for the same time period. Both numbers were down slightly—about 1 to 2 percent—from last year’s results, making its 2015 revenue essentially unchanged year to year. But its net income was almost triple of last year’s due to lower legal costs.
By business segment, consumer banking still provided the lion’s share of revenue for Bank of America, accounting for $30.61 billion in revenue and $6.7 billion in net income. Global Wealth and Investment Management, the company’s wealth and asset management and resarch division, contributed $18 billion in revenue and $2.6 billion in income.
Global Banking and Global Markets generated $16.92 billion and $15.07 billion in revenue, and Legacy Assets and Servicing contributed $3.4 billion in revenue.
Bank of America stands to gain slightly from the recent increase in interest rates announced by the Federal Reserve late last year, though how much remains to be seen in the course of the year, as it faces some tailwinds from the drop in economic activity in China and exposure to energy industry.
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