(Reuters) -Bank of America’s profit rose in the third quarter, as its investment bankers earned big from advising on mega deals, sending shares of the lender up more than 3% in trading before the bell.
The bank and its biggest rivals benefited from renewed confidence among corporations to carry out large mergers and acquisitions.
Globally, megadeals reached $1.26 trillion during the reported quarter, a 40% jump from the same period last year, marking the second-highest third-quarter total on record, according to Dealogic data.
Overall global dealmaking topped $3 trillion in the first nine months of 2025, reaching the highest level since the pandemic peak in 2021, according to Mergermarket data.
Investment banking fees at BofA rose 43% to $2 billion from a year earlier, compared with executives’ earlier forecast for a 10% to 15% increase.
INTEREST INCOME BOOST
Net interest income — or the difference between what the bank earns on loans and pays out on deposits — rose 9% to $15.2 billion in the quarter from a year earlier.
BofA’s management now expects fourth-quarter NII between $15.6 billion and $15.7 billion, up about 8% from a year earlier.
The Federal Reserve’s 25-basis-points cut in September could stoke demand from borrowers. BofA had previously said it expects record net interest income in 2025.
“Strong loan and deposit growth, coupled with effective balance sheet positioning, resulted in record net interest income,” CEO Brian Moynihan said in a statement.
BofA’s stock, however, has underperformed all of its peers as well as the KBW Bank Index so far in 2025.
The second-largest U.S. bank on Wednesday reported a net income of $8.5 billion, or $1.06 per share, in the three months ended September 30. That compares with $6.9 billion, or 81 cents per share, a year earlier.
(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru, editing by Lananh Nguyen and Shinjini Ganguli)
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