Bank of America continues strong US banking results with earnings beat

Another Wall Street giant revealed a strong performance on Tuesday after Bank of America reported better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter of 2017.

Bank of America saw earnings per share of 41 cents, a 40% increase on the same figure for 2016 and 6 cents higher than estimates from analysts.

Revenue was also higher than the consensus had projected, with the lender raking in $22.2bn for the first three months of the year, ahead of the $21.6bn predicted. The figure was 7% higher than the corresponding quarter twelve months ago, when revenue totalled $20.8bn.

Strong performances related to its investment banking division and net interest income streams through loans and deposits drove the strong showing.

BoA CEO Brian Moynihan attributed the bank’s performance to a strong US economy.

"The US economy continues to show consumer and business optimism, and our results reflect that."

"We saw good client activity in our balanced portfolio of businesses: consumer spending was up, our wealth management business had strong asset management flows, investment banking fees rebounded nicely," Moynihan added.

Shares were trading 0.57% lower at $22.66 as of 16:05, with the results being released before the opening bell on Tuesday.