(New York Times) – Bank of America said on Wednesday that its profit fell sharply in the third quarter, weighed down by a large legal charge related to its record mortgage settlement with federal and state authorities.
The bank’s net income dropped to $168 million from $2.5 billion in the period a year earlier, though the decline was not as bad as Wall Street analysts had expected.
After accounting for dividend payments on preferred shares, the results amounted to a loss of 1 cent a share. Wall Street had been expecting a loss of 9 cents a share, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters. The bank’s revenue fell 1 percent, to $21.4 billion, from the third quarter of 2013, slightly topping analysts’ estimates of $21.36 billion.
In August, Bank of America agreed to a $16.65 billion deal with federal and state authorities to settle civil charges related to its sale of shoddy mortgage securities. The third-quarter results, however, are a reminder that the bank has not yet put the financial crisis behind it.