today reported that its global wealth and investment management revenue rose 6 per cent in the third quarter of this year from the same period a year earlier to $4.6 billion. However, the figure was below the level of just under $4.7 billion for the quarter ending June 30, figures showed. The fall in the quarter-on-quarter revenue figure was driven by a rise in interest rates paid to clients on deposits, which occurred primarily at the end of the second quarter, BoA said. 

Higher revenues for the year-on-year comparison were driven by higher net interest income and asset management fees, which more than offset lower transactional revenue. AuM flows reached $77 billion through three quarters of the year, it said.

Total client balances rose by $186 billion to a record of almost $2.7 trillion, the bank said in a statement today, following corporate results yesterday from Citigroup and JP Morgan. 

Assets under management balances stood at more than $1.0 trillion, the bank said. 

Throughout the entire group, net income rose 13 per cent to $5.6 billion and diluted earnings per share rose 17 per cent to $0.48 per share. Revenue, after interest costs, rose 1 per cent to $21.8 billion.

The bank had a CET 1 ratio – a widely-used measure of how much “buffer capital” a bank has to withstand shocks – of 11.9 per cent at the end of September this year, against 11.5 per cent from the end of June.

"Client activity remained strong across the franchise. Year over year, we grew average deposits by $45 billion, or 4 per cent, and increased average loan balances in our business segments by $46 billion, or 6 per cent. It's worth noting that we grew loans while remaining within our customer and risk frameworks, as evidenced by our low loss rates. Our balance sheet remained strong, which enabled us to repurchase nearly $3 billion in common stock and pay $1.3 billion in common stock dividends in the quarter,” Paul M Donofrio, chief financial officer, said. 

Segments

Elsewhere in global wealth and investment management (GWIM), pre-tax margin of 27 per cent is up from 26 per cent in the third quarter of 2016, driven by solid revenue growth and expense management. 

Referrals to and from GWIM business lines with other areas of the company increased 10 per cent from a year earlier.

Merrill Lynch Wealth Management  

The bank said this segement logged record client balances of $2.25 trillion, up by $49 billion (or 2 per cent) from the previous quarter and up by $156 billion (or 7.5 per cent) on a year earlier, driven by higher market values and client flows. Revenue came in at $3.8 billion, up $179 million or 5 per cent on a year ago, driven in large part by higher net interest income and asset management fees – partially offset by lower transactional revenue. 
 
Merrill Lynch Advisors
An additional 286 advisors joined, taking the total to 14,954 advisors at the end of the third quarter; the gain was 143 from the previous three-month period.

Financial advisor productivity stood at 41.30 million per experienced advisor (down from $1.35 million in the previous quarter), and total FA productivity was $994,000 (down from about $1.04 million in Q2.

US Trust

Revenue was $822 million, up by $62 million (or 8.2 per cent from the same quarter of last year, and up 0.4 per cent from a year ago. Client balances were a record of $431 billion, up 2.3 per cent on the quarter and up 7.5 per cent on the year. 

The number of private client advisors rose 6 per cent to 361 at the end of September.