(Reuters) – Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) reported a jump in fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday, benefiting from loan growth and a frenetic pace of global dealmaking activity that helped drive its investment banking business.
Bank of America, along with other Main Street lenders like JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) & Co, is expected to benefit from upcoming interest rate hikes in 2022, after almost two years of rock-bottom rates that eroded the bank’s income from loans.
The second-largest U.S. bank by assets is more sensitive to fluctuations in interest rates than its peers, because of the composition of its balance sheet.
During the year, Bank of America’s investment bank rode the global M&A boom to post healthy profits, as investment banks closed record volumes of mergers, underwrote several initial public offerings and advised on deals involving special purpose acquisition companies.
For the quarter ended Dec. 31, the bank reported revenue, net of interest expense, of $22.1 billion, up 10% from last year.
Profit rose to $6.77 billion, or 82 cents per share, from $5.21 billion, or 59 cents per share, a year earlier.
Analysts on average had expected a profit of 76 cents per share, according to the IBES estimate from Refinitiv.