The Bank of America (BOA) has published its results for Q1 2009, posting net income of $4.2b. Those results compared with net income of $1.2 billion during the same period last year.
The acquisition of Merrill Lynch contributed $3.7 billion in net income and a $1.9 billion pre-tax gain was reported on the sale of China Construction Bank shares.
BOA also warned of deteriorating credit quality and increased provisions for credit losses (addition of $6.4b to loan loss reserve), causing its shares to fall 19% on the day of publication.
The bank issued $85 billion in first-time mortgages in the quarter, enough to prompt the bank to hire 5,000 additional workers, even as it has been on a campaign to reduce employees by 35,000 as a result of the Merrill deal.