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Banks finish strong first quarters

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Bank of America Corp.'s first-quarter earnings rose sharply from a year ago as the nation's No. 3 bank benefited from its acquisition of FleetBoston and strong commercial loan growth and deposit growth.

An acquisition also boosted results at SunTrust Banks Inc., which said Monday its first-quarter earnings rose 36 percent because of its acquisition of National Commerce Financial Corp., strong interest income growth and improved credit quality.

Both banks soundly beat analysts' projections for the January-March quarter.

Last week, other major banks' earnings also came in above forecasts. Citigroup Inc., the nation's largest financial institution, and Wachovia Corp., a fast-growing regional bank, reported strong first-quarter results in part because of improved consumer credit performance and stronger commercial lending.

Bank of America's first-quarter results include merger and restructuring costs of 2 cents per share. Last year's results did not include the effect of Bank of America's merger with FleetBoston Financial Corp., which was completed on April 1, 2004.

The earnings per share surpassed the 97 cents profit expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Ken Lewis, chairman and chief executive, said Bank of America "saw the strongest commercial loan growth in many quarters across our company, and deposit growth continues to be robust."

That was echoed by chief financial officer Marc Oken, who said that "we haven't seen loan growth like this in quite a while."

The Bank of America executives also said the integration of Fleet remained on schedule.

SunTrust Banks's operating income for the latest period, excluding merger expenses and a 3-cent gain on a sale of assets to CIT Group Inc., was $1.37 a share.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected SunTrust to earn $1.32 a share on revenue of $1.89-billion.

"Our first-quarter results benefited from increasingly robust net interest income growth, excellent credit quality and a continuation of effective cost control," said L. Phillip Humann, chairman and chief executive.

Average loans for the quarter grew to $103.2-million, up 29 percent from $79.9-million a year ago, helped by the home equity and residential real estate segments. Average customer deposits totaled $91-million, also up 29 percent from last year.

[Last modified April 19, 2005, 01:19:14]