Bank of America Profit Trounces Estimates

(NEWSER) - Bank of America and Citigroup both posted estimate-topping profits today, but neither inspired much confidence, the New York Times reports. Both numbers hinged on one-time gains from asset sales. In Bank of America’s case, earnings fell 5.5% to $3.22 billion, a number propped up by the sale of its stake in a big Chinese bank. Citigroup pulled in $4.28 billion, but only because it sold off part of Smith Barney. More»

Bank tells Fed it'll shrink its footprint if things get rough

(NEWSER) - Should we start calling it Bank of Some of America? If push comes to shove, the banking giant is prepared to pull its operations out of some parts of the country, sources tell the Wall Street Journal . The unpalatable retreat is one of several contingency plans the bank drew up last year at the Federal Reserve's insistence, an exercise intended to prepare for the possibility that its mortgage and other financial problems could worsen. More»

It's the largest fair-lending settlement in history

(NEWSER) - Bank of America's purchase of Countrywide in 2008 just got more expensive. BofA agreed today to pay $335 million to settle a Justice Department complaint that Countrywide discriminated against black and Hispanic home buyers. The Wall Street Journal calls it the "largest residential fair-lending settlement in history." The allegations said Countrywide charged more than 200,000 minority borrowers more than white borrowers with similar credit profiles between 2004 and 2008. More»

Standard & Poor's applies new criteria to banks around the world

(AP) - Standard & Poor's is adjusting the ratings on 37 of the world's largest financial institutions, and that means downgrades for the biggest banks in the US. Bank of America and its main subsidiaries were among those cut at least one notch today, along with Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo. More»

It's oil giant's best quarter since 2008

(NEWSER) - Gas prices are soaring, and so are Exxon Mobil's profits. The oil giant raked in $10.65 billion in profits in the first quarter of 2011, its best performance since the gas price spike of 2008. The $2.14-per-share profit well exceeded analysts' $2.04 estimates, the AP reports. The company seems to be expecting a blowback, because it posted a blog post yesterday offering a preemptive response to "the inevitable headlines and sound bites about high gasoline prices." More»