4Bank of America (BAC) Co-President Dean Athanasia said the firm’s investment banking revenue has increased about “10%, double digits,” so far, compared with a year ago at this time.
Global markets are also up in the low double-digits, he added, citing a lot of activity. “We have 15, 16 more days of trading. We’ll see where the results go,” he said at the Royal Bank of Canada Global Financial Institutions Conference.
However, Athanasia warned that volatility, sparked by the conflict in the Middle East, could still impact results by the end of the quarter. “You’re probably going to see a lot of volatility that’s going to happen the last two weeks here,” he said:
Still, its global markets unit is confident in hitting its 16th straight quarter of Y/Y growth in global markets, he said.
Bank of America (BAC) also expects Q1 net interest income to increase at least 7% Y/Y. “Things are going pretty good there,” he said. Deposit growth is in low single digits, as planned.
In wealth management, “fees are up double-digits. That’s good for the first quarter,” he observed.
Meanwhile, lending has “come out of the gate pretty strong… We see good activity.”
Athanasia also outlined expectations for growth. The company expects to ramp up credit card growth to a 5% rate over the medium term. “We know we have to do better there,” he said.
BofA (BAC) also sees a path for another $4B in growth from its payments business. Wealth management targets 4%-5% net new asset growth in the medium term.
Bank of America (BAC) stock rose 1.4% in regular-session trading on Tuesday.