Bank of America achieved a record profit in the fourth quarter of 2018. The large American financial group did particularly well with its services to consumers and businesses, helped by more credit and rising interest rates in the United States. The income from the bond trade, however, fell due to the turmoil in the financial markets.
The bank recorded a net profit of 7.3 billion dollars, against 2.4 billion dollars a year earlier. At the time, the group had to take billions of dollars because of the American tax reforms.
The income went up by 11 percent to $ 22.7 billion. In the consumer branch, the profit increased by more than half to 3.3 billion dollars. More was also earned with asset management and international banking.
Throughout 2018, Bank of America made a net profit in the books of $ 28.1 billion, against $ 18.2 billion a year earlier. CEO Brian Moynihan said he was proud of the record results of the group.
Investment bank Goldman Sachs reported a net profit of more than $ 2.5 billion for the fourth quarter. A year ago, a loss of $ 1.9 billion was incurred due to a significant burden on tax reforms in the US.
Goldman Sachs also had to contend with lower income from trading in bonds, commodities and currencies in the past period, while income from the equity trade rose. Furthermore, the American bank was able to earn a lot more by advising on mergers and acquisitions.
Throughout 2018 Goldman Sachs made a profit of 10.5 billion dollars, on revenues of 36.6 billion dollars.