Bank of America reports huge loss

Its earnings amounted to a swing into a loss of 90 cents a share, in line with analysts' forecasts after the bank set aside $14 billion last month to compensate angry investors for their losses on dodgy mortgage-backed securities.

Without the mortgage settlement and other exceptional items, the bank would have posted a profit of $3.7 billion, or 33 cents per share, Bank of America said in its quarterly earnings report.

"Obviously, the solid performance in our underlying businesses continues to be clouded by the costs we are absorbing from our legacy mortgage issues," chief executive Brian Moynihan said in a statement.

The bank's revenues in the April-June period were $13.2 billion, a drop of 55 per cent from the same period last year. Analysts had expected revenues of $12.3 billion.

Bank of America, the largest bank in the United States in terms of deposits, announced a settlement last month aimed at resolving issues from its disastrous 2008 acquisition of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial.

Until 2008, Countrywide played a leading role in generating mortgages that were bundled into securities and resold to investors.

Following a downturn in the US housing market, though, such mortgage-backed securities plunged in value, triggering the global financial crisis.

Bank of America's proposed $8.5 billion payout to 22 big private investment groups, which still needs court approval, is the largest such settlement by a financial institution stemming from the crisis.

Along with that sum, Bank of America also set aside $5.5 billion for pending liabilities to other investors not included in the settlement.

"The company continues to work through legacy issues, but it has been costly, and there is still more work to do," analysts with Nomura Equity Research said in a research note.

Bank of America's shares had slumped 1.7 per cent on the New York Stock Exchange shortly before 1500 GMT on Tuesday.

In contrast, shares of its number-two rival Wells Fargo rallied 4.0 per cent after the San Francisco-based bank reported that its net income surged 30 per cent to $3.73 billion in the second quarter.

Wells Fargo's earnings per share were 70 cents, just beating analysts' consensus expectations of 69 cents.

Weighed down by a sluggish economy, its revenues were $20.39 billion, around 5 per cent less than the second quarter of 2010 but still a modest uptick from first-quarter 2011 revenues of $20.33 billion.

"Our business fundamentals were strong with increased revenues, loans and deposits, lower operating costs, improved credit quality and higher capital levels," Wells Fargo chief executive John Stumpf said in a statement.

The slowing economy also weighed on investment-banking titan Goldman Sachs, which reported that its second-quarter net income was $1.05 billion, below analysts' expectations.

Goldman's revenues were $7.28 billion, down 18 per cent from the same quarter of 2010 and 39 per cent lower than in the first quarter of this year. Analysts had expected revenues of $8.14 billion.

"During the second quarter, the operating environment was more difficult given global macroeconomic concerns," Goldman's chairman and chief executive Lloyd Blankfein said in a statement.

Goldman shares were down 0.5 per cent at about 1500 GMT.