BofA’s Merrill Unit Sputters as Moynihan Reduces Risk
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Bank of America Corp.’s first-quarter revenue from fixed-income trading slumped more than most of its peers, eroding the biggest source of profit at the firm’s Merrill Lynch investment bank amid a push to curtail risk.
Fixed-income, currency and commodity revenue reported yesterday by the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender tumbled 20 percent to $3.3 billion from a year earlier while total trading revenue fell 13 percent to $4.5 billion in the quarter, missing the $5 billion estimate of David Trone, an analyst with JMP Securities LLC. Among the five biggest U.S. investment banks, only Morgan Stanley’s fixed-income sales fell more.