Bank of New York Mellon 1-Q profit jumps 74%
NEW YORK, United States – THE Bank of New York Mellon yesterday said its first-quarter profit jumped 74 per cent, as the market recovery drove growth in its asset and wealth management business.
CEO Robert Kelly said the economic outlook is clearly improving, as demonstrated by the performance of the equity and credit markets.
The trust bank’s net income applicable to common shareholders rose to US$559 million, or 46 cents per share, compared with year-ago profit of US$322 million, or 28 cents per share.
Excluding reserves for litigation, merger and integration expenses, restructuring charges and other items, adjusted profit was 59 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, expected profit of 53 cents per share.
Total fee revenue rose five per cent to US$2.56 billion, from US$2.43 billion a year ago.
Asset and wealth management fees rose 13 per cent to US$696 million. Assets under management rose 25 per cent to US$1.1 trillion at March 31.
The provision for credit losses — money set aside to cover souring loans — decreased 41 per cent to US$35 million from US$59 million in the fourth quarter of 2009. Bank of New York Mellon said the decrease in the provision reflects improvements in its highest-risk asset classes.
Nonperforming assets, or loans considered past due, totaled US$459 million, up nine per cent from US$421 million last year. Residential mortgages accounted for nearly 45 per cent of the nonperforming loans, or US$204 million.
