Tag Archives: Bank Profits

The first quarter of 2015 also brought in a 15 percent increase in revenue and a 2 percent decline in operating expenses when compared to 2014, and interest-earning assets rose 8 percent over the last quarter. Warehouse lending also saw an increase of 15 percent since 2014.

But while earnings dropped, mortgage-banking income and actual revenues for BB&T both increased. Since Q1 last year, mortgage-banking income rose by 48.6 percent, and total revenues for the company jumped by 1.5 percent, or $34 million, coming in at $2.3 billion total.

The Atlanta-based bank reported $411 million in net income, or 78 cents per share, which translates to a 7 percent increase over Q1 of 2014 and $33 million more than in Q4.

For San Francisco-based Wells Fargo in Q1, revenues increased by 3 percent year-over-year up to $21.3 billion. Although net income slightly declined from the same quarter a year ago from $5.9 billion to $5.8 billion, noninterest income for the bank jumped by $29 million up to $10.3 billion. The bank received higher income in Q1 from trading activities, debt security gains, mortgage origination gains, and insurance, but the higher income was offset by lower income in mortgage servicing, which was at $108 million for Q1 compared to $235 million for Q4 2014. Wells Fargo posted mortgage banking noninterest income of $1.5 billion for Q1.

Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein said he was pleased with the fact that “all of our major businesses contributed” to the strong first quarter. “Given more normalized markets and higher levels of client activity, we remain encouraged about the prospects for continued growth,” he said.

The decline can be attributed to a reduction of $757 in equity investment income and $211 million related to additional market-related adjustments on the bank's debt securities portfolio, due to long-term lower interest rates' impact.