Dive Brief:

• Bank of America reported $7.7 billion in profit Thursday for its third quarter. That represents a 58% jump over the nearly $4.9 billion in last year’s third quarter, but a drop from the $9.2 billion it saw in the second quarter.
• A fugue of mergers and acquisitions led the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender’s investment-banking unit to a banner quarter. The unit’s fees saw a 23% increase to $2.2 billion over 2020’s third quarter, buoyed by a 65% jump in advisory fees. Bank of America CFO Paul Donofrio, in his final earnings call in that role, said the pipeline of deals "remains at elevated levels" heading into the fourth quarter, according to Bloomberg.
• The bank, during the third quarter, released $1.1 billion of the loan-loss reserve cushion it built up in the COVID-19 pandemic’s early days, it said. That’s half the $2.2 billion it released in the second quarter.

Dive Insight:

Bank of America’s double-digit percentage-point gains weren’t confined to its investment bank. The lender saw its consumer deposits surpass $1 trillion for the first time, a gain of 16%. The bank also saw its combined credit and debit card spending jump 21%, indicating consumers and small-business customers were spending ahead of pre-pandemic levels. 

"Each day, clients entrust us with more of their business, whether it's new checking and credit card accounts in Consumer; broader and deeper relationships in Wealth Management; increased commercial loan balances; or near-record investment banking activities," CEO Brian Moynihan said Thursday in a statement. "The team has done a remarkable job, and I couldn't be prouder of how they stepped up to support our clients and deliver another quarter of outstanding results."

A number of overall figures saw double-digit bumps. The bank saw a 12% jump in revenue, to nearly $22.8 billion from about $20.3 billion during 2020’s third quarter. Net interest income, too, was up 10% to $11.1 billion. And noninterest income, which includes fees, increased 14% to nearly $11.7 billion, against last year’s comparable three-month span.

Adjusted trading revenue at the bank just missed a double-digit gain, up 9% to more than $3.6 billion. That was buoyed by a 33% jump in equities-trading revenue.

The bank also posted a record $3.2 billion in asset-management fees, propelling its wealth-management division to a 17% swell in revenue.

Outstanding loans and leases marked one of the bank’s few decreases for the quarter. The $927.7 billion total represented a 3% drop from a year earlier. However, the bank’s loan book would have seen an increase of nearly 2% from the second quarter were Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans not factored, The Wall Street Journal reported.