The profit for Bank of America dropped by 43 percent in the second-quarter, mostly because of a large legal expense that overshadowed other positive results for the bank, according to The New York Times.
The bank had profits of $2.3 billion on revenue of $22 billion for the second-quarter. Brian T. Moynihan, the chief executive of the bank, said the following:
“The economy continues to strengthen, and our customers and clients are doing more business with us. Among other positive indicators, consumers are spending more, brokerage assets are up by double digits and our corporate clients are increasingly turning to us to help finance business expansion and merger activity.”
The legal expense in the quarter totaled $4 billion.
Bank of America announced that it reached a settlement with the American International Group in the quarter of $650 million. The settlement was for mortgage securities litigation.
Bank of America has one major legal hurdle left; settling an investigation by the Justice Department. The investigation surrounds the bank’s involvement in selling defective mortgage securities prior to the financial crisis. Lawyers for the bank met with the Justice Department on Tuesday, but both sides are not close on a deal.
The bank also announced that its fixed-income trading revenue increased at a five percent clip from the same time last year.