Financial Results
Net Income Dips Slightly At Bank Of America's Wealth Arm

BoA was one of a number of US financial firms reporting Q4 and full-year figures for 2022 late last week.
Bank of America, based in Charlotte, North Carolina (pictured) said its wealth management business, including its private bank and Merrill Lynch businesses, logged net income of $1.2 billion, a fall of 2 per cent on a year ago in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Pre-tax income stood at $1.6 billion, a fall of 2 per cent on a year earlier. Pre-tax, pre-provision income rose 4 per cent to $1.6 billion, it said in a statement late last week.
BoA’s wealth business, which logged record fourth-quarter revenue of $5.4 billion, increased marginally as higher net interest income was mostly offset by the impact of lower market valuations on non-interest income.
Non-interest costs, which were $3.8 billion, fell 1 per cent, driven by lower revenue-related incentives, partially offset by investments in the business, including strategic hiring and marketing.
Bank of America’s private bank reported client balances of $565 billion, and assets under management balances of $314 billion. It added about 550 net new relationships in the fourth quarter, a rise of 5 per cent on a year before.
In the Merrill Lynch Management business line, client balances stood at $2.8 trillion; assets under management balances were $1.1 billion and it added about 8,500 net new households, rising 27 per cent.
Group results
The firm said its net income for Q4 2022 stood at $7.1
billion, or $0.85 per diluted share, compared with $7.0
billion, or $0.82 per diluted share for Q4 2021. Pre-tax
income rose 1 per cent to $7.9 billion due to a reserve build
compared with a reserve release in the fourth quarter of
2021, it said.
The Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio – a common measure of a bank’s capital buffer – is 11.2 per cent, up by 25 basis points from the third quarter of 2022.