Bank of New York Mellon profit surges on asset management fees

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. said Wednesday its fourth-quarter profit surged as asset and wealth management revenue offset lower interest income. Profit rose to $593 million, or 49 cents per share, from $28 million, or 2 cents per share. Excluding discontinued operations, a tax benefit, a restructuring charge and other items, adjusted profit totaled $728 million, or 60 cents per share. Analysts, on average, expected earnings per share of 51 cents, according to Thomson Reuters. Shares of Bank of New York Mellon gained $1.23, or 4.2 percent, to $30.76 in afternoon trading. Asset and wealth management fees rose 5 percent to $736 million, due in part to the acquisition of Insight Investment Management, which closed during the quarter. The acquisition also helped assets under management increase 20 percent to $1.115 trillion, the company said. Provisions for credit losses rose to $65 million from $54 million in 2008. Meanwhile, low interest rates hurt New York-based Bank of New York Mellon's net interest income, which slid 31 percent to $724 million. Foreign exchange and other trading activities also fell 52 percent to $246 million. The company posted an investment securities pretax gain of $15 million in the most recent quarter, reversing the 2008 quarter pretax loss of $1.24 billion. For the full year, the company lost $1.37 billion, of $1.16 per share, compared to a profit of $1.38 billion, or $1.20 per share, in 2008.