Bank of America, the third largest US bank, has reported a solid rise in first quarter profits to $2.7 billion, though this excludes earnings from its takeover of FleetBoston.
This was a higher than expected rise of 11%. Earnings per share increased to $1.83 in the quarter, beating Wall Street forecasts of $1.80.
Revenues also rose 11 percent to $5.8 billion as the bank's customers took out more loans and stashed away more in savings.
But Bank of America noted that it took a $285m pre-tax charge during the first quarter 'to cover its mutual fund
settlement', related to improper fund trading practices. Its investment banking unit set aside $106m for bad loans to troubled Italian group Parmalat and wrote down $29m in derivative exposure.
Its results for the quarter did not include earnings from newly acquired FleetBoston Financial. The takeover became effective on April 1.
