Bank of America’s Cost-Cutting Drive Pushes Profit to Record
- Lender posts best efficiency ratio in more than five years
- Net income jumps 30%, surpassing analysts’ estimates
This article is for subscribers only.
Bank of America Corp. hit a new milestone in its years-long effort to get costs under control.
First-quarter expenses totaled about 60 percent of revenue, the best ratio in more than five years. That helped push profit above analysts’ estimates, and corporate tax cuts spurred earnings to a record. Net interest income got a bigger boost than expected from higher interest rates, but fixed-income trading disappointed.