Bank of New York Mellon: Making bank

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. reported a 72% increase in first-quarter earnings, led by gains from lending to investors, handling trades and last year’s $18.3 billion merger with Mellon Financial Corp. Net income surged to $746 million, or 65 cents per share, from $434 million, or 60 cents per share, in the year-earlier period. Revenue for the quarter nearly doubled to $3.75 billion. Excluding merger and other costs, profits were 78 cents per share, above Wall Street estimates of 73 cents per share. While market volatility is roiling some of the city’s biggest finance firms, fees at BoNY nearly doubled for the quarter. Still, not even a bank with $1.1 trillion in assets under management can avoid the credit crunch: BoNY wrote down $74 million worth of asset-backed securities, $25 million in investments managed by a former hedge fund unit and spent $12 million to support a cash fund that invested in structured investment vehicles.