Wells Fargo, the biggest US mortgage lender, said its first-quarter profit surged 23% after it cut expenses.
The lower expenses helped the bank overcome a slight decline in revenue. Net income rose to $4.93 billion from $4.02 billion a year earlier.
On a per-share basis, earnings were 92 cents, beating the 89 cents forecast by Wall Street.
But revenue fell 2% to $21.3 billion and missed expectations.
Wells Fargo was little known outside the Western US before scooping up a teetering Wachovia in the depths of the financial crisis in 2008.
The bank has turned a profit every quarter since 2009, the year it wrapped up its acquisition of Wachovia.
The Federal Reserve said last month that Wells Fargo passed its annual checkup, a "stress test" to measure how a bank would fare in a severe recession. The Fed cleared the bank to raise its quarterly dividend to 30 cents per share.
