Bank of America Corp. reported a better-than-expected 30 percent jump in quarterly profit on Wednesday, driven by loan growth as well as record-breaking M&A volumes that helped drive its investment banking business, sending its shares up 1.9 percent.
Flush with cash and emboldened by soaring stock market valuations, large buyout funds, corporates, and financiers struck billions of dollars worth of deals in the fourth quarter, generating record advisory fees of $850 million for BofA, up 55 percent from a year earlier.
