Bank of America, the second-largest US bank by assets, has today reported a 19.4% fall in quarterly profit as low lending rates dented its interest income.
However, the bank's profit beat lowered market expectations.
Bank of America said its net income fell to $3.87 billion, or 36 cents per share, in the second quarter ended June 30, from $4.80 billion, or 43 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the bank earned 37 cents per share, beating the average analyst estimate of 33 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Like all big banks, Bank of America's ability to boost earnings has been hampered by persistently low interest rates and stricter capital requirements. That has meant it has had to resort to heavy cost-cutting to drive earnings.
The bank's non-interest expenses fell 3.3% to $13.49 billion in the latest quarter.
"We continued to invest in core growth areas and to manage expenses, which were down 3% year over year to a level not seen since 2008," its chief executive Brian Moynihan said in a statement.
Bank of America has been closing retail branches and reducing overall headcount, while increasing hiring for sales staff.
Before Britain's June 23 vote to leave the European Union, the US Federal Reserve had been widely expected to raise interest rates at least twice this year, after raising them for the first time in nearly a decade in December.
Now, there are doubts that there will be any rate hike at all in 2016.
The bank said today that its provisions for bad loans rose 25% to $976m in the three month period.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank had been expected to be one of the worst-performing banks in the quarter, partly due to its large exposure to the energy sector.
Of the other big US banks that have reported so far, JPMorgan Chase & Co's profit fell 1.6%, Citigroup's 14% and Wells Fargo's 3.5%.
Bank of America said its adjusted trading revenue increased 11.7% to $3.70 billion in the quarter.
Fixed income, currency and commodities trading revenue rose 22.2%, while revenue from its smaller equities trading business slipped 7.6%.
Moynihan had said in June that the bank's trading business was on track for mid-single digit percentage revenue growth.
Total adjusted revenue fell 7.02% to $20.62 billion in the three months to June.
Bank of America said last month it would buy back $5 billion of shares after clearing the latest round of Federal Reserve stress tests that evaluated its ability to withstand a financial crisis.
