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A rather rough quarter for ""Bank of America"":http://about.bankofamerica.com/en-us/index.html#fbid=RwYHGv9E231 resulted in a better-than-anticipated quarterly net income of $340 million, the bank reported.
[IMAGE]Citing legal expenses (totaling $1.6 billion) and debit valuation adjustments ($1.9 billion), BofA saw its quarterly revenue drop drastically year-over-year from $6.2 billion in third-quarter 2011.
The profit the bank managed to make was mostly driven by improved credit quality across most major portfolios, increased sales and trading revenue, increased investment banking income, and higher mortgage banking income.
The bank funded $21.2 billion in residential home loans and home equity loans during the quarter, up 12 percent quarter-to-quarter and 18 percent year-over-year if you exclude 2011's correspondent mortgage business. BofA left the correspondent business in late 2011.
Consumer Real Estate Services reported a net loss of $877 million for the quarter, an improvement from $1.1 billion in third-quarter 2011. The improvement was ""due primarily to higher mortgage banking income and lower provision for credit losses, partially offset by higher expenses,"" the bank said.
BofA set aside $264 million for credit losses in the third quarter compared to $918 million a year ago.
Mortgage revenue jumped up to $3.1 billion from $274 million in the third quarter of 2011, driven mostly by higher mortgage banking income. However, the ""continued high costs of managing delinquent and defaulted loans in the servicing portfolio combined with the costs associated with managing other legacy mortgage exposures"" to create an overall loss in consumer real estate.
