Bank of America profits grow 15%, avoids industry crisis

Bank of America said its profits grew 15 percent last quarter, the latest of the big banks to do exceptionally well this earnings season as investors and consumers flock to Wall Street for safety after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

The nation's second-largest bank by assets posted a profit of $8.2 billion, up from $7.1 billion in the same period a year earlier. On a per-share basis, BofA earnings rose to 94 cents from 80 cents. The results beat analysts' expectations.

Like its major competitors, BofA has benefitted from wealthy clients, businesses and other customers running to the bank as a place of safety after last month's bank failures. The nation's biggest banks are seen as having an implicit government backstop, due to their “too big to fail” status among the country's financial institutions.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank added customers in its business and consumer banking businesses. While deposits across the firm were down 1% from the beginning of the year, executives said that deposit outflows would have been larger had new clients hadn't started banking with BofA in March. Banks across the industry have been broadly seeing deposits decline as inflation makes customers and businesses tap savings to pay expenses.