(20 January 2005 – USA) Bank of America has posted a record fourth quarter profit, boosted by last April’s takeover of FleetBoston Financial Corp and a strong commercial banking performance.BoA, the third largest bank in the US in terms of assets, reported a Q4 net income of US$3.85 billion, up from US$2.73 billion in the corresponding period a year ago. Its assets grew to US$1.2 trillion, up 51 percent on the year.
BoA said the Fleet acquisition was a major factor in its commercial banking business growing 93 percent in Q4 to US$887 million. The bank paid US$47 billion in stock for Fleet.
The bank said it had opened some 46,000 new consumer accounts in the space where Fleet previously operated, reaching a total in 2004 of 184,000.
BoA’s global corporate and investment banking earnings rose 16 percent to US4536 million.