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Bank of America CEO Sees Trading, Capital Markets Staying Strong This Year

Bank of America CEO Sees Trading, Capital Markets Staying Strong This Year

Bank of America Corp. expects the buoyant capital markets and high trading volumes of last year to persist through 2021.

“We feel good about this year,” Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan said Wednesday in an interview on Bloomberg TV. “Capital markets are still very strong, the trading environments are still pretty strong.”

The pandemic and U.S. politics generated an avalanche of client activity in 2020, spurring a windfall across Wall Street’s trading desks. But that activity was offset by a broader economic slump, as high unemployment and shuttered businesses weighed on consumer divisions.

Here are other takeaways from the interview:

  • On net interest income, or revenue from customer loan payments minus what the company pays depositors: “We think we’ve seen the bottom of that, we’re working our way out,” he said. The bank’s NII fell 16% to $10.3 billion in the fourth quarter.
  • About 12% of the company’s staff are currently working in its offices.
  • On vaccines: “If we can deliver 100,000 computers for people to work from home never having thought we had to do it, if somebody had vaccines they want to give to our teammates, I will get them there morning, noon or night. Our teammates want to get the vaccine.”

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.