Bank of America said Wednesday it squeezed out a profit in the third quarter, despite taking a $1.6 billion pretax charge for legal expenses.
The nation’s second-largest bank reported third-quarter net income of $340 million, compared to $6.2 billion, or $0.56 per diluted share, in the same quarter last year.
Relative to the same quarter in 2011, the results for the third quarter were driven by an improved performance in the bank’s major business divisions, including sales and trading, mortgage banking and investment banking.
The middling results suggest the bank’s Chief Executive Brian Moynihan is still struggling to deal with the acquisitions the bank made during the financial crisis.
Moynihan is in the midst of a major cost-cutting program, called “New BAC,” that aims to eliminate $8 billion in annual expenses and 30,000 jobs.
The legal costs reported by the bank stem from the bank’s $2.4 billion settlement over claims that it concealed important information from shareholders when it bought investment bank Merrill Lynch at the depths of the financial crisis.
Reuters contributed to this report.
