(Reuters) – Bank of America Corp missed Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue on Wednesday as the lender was squeezed by lower interest rates, and it set aside $1.4 billion to meet future losses in its commercial loan portfolio.
Net interest income at the bank, a key measure of how much it can make from lending, sank 17%, showing the effects of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s moves to slash interest rates to near-zero and promise to keep them there to help spur growth.
However, a tight lid on costs helped the bank beat profit expectations.
Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America is especially vulnerable to rate movements because of the composition of its balance sheet.
The lender also posted weak results in its sales and trading arm, in stark contrast to JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc, which on Tuesday reported a 30% and 16% rise in trading revenue, respectively.
The second largest U.S. bank by assets posted an adjusted revenue of $20.45 billion, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $20.81 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Net income applicable to common shareholders fell 15.8% to $4.44 billion, or 51 cents per share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30, but beat IBES estimates of 49 cents as total non-operating expenses fell 5%.
Shares of the bank were down 2% in premarket trading.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru and Imani Moise in New York; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
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