Despite revenue dip, Merrill Lynch growth contributes to strong quarter for BofA

Although revenue was down, growth at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management contributed to one of the strongest fiscal quarters in Bank of America's history. 

When the bank published its second-quarter earnings Tuesday, it reported that Merrill Lynch grew client balances 8.4% year-over-year to surpass $3 trillion in the second quarter, up from $2.9 trillion in the first quarter. The firm brought in $120 billion in new assets under management over the last 12 months to reach a total of $1.5 trillion.

However, revenue generated by Merrill fell 1.4% from the previous quarter and is down 3.5% compared to the year-ago quarter. Over the first six months of 2023, revenue from Merrill is down 4.25% compared to the first half of 2022.

Merrill also lost 144 financial advisors since the first quarter of the year. However, overall head count is up by 650 advisors from the same period last year.

Across Merrill Lynch and Bank of America Private Bank, the firm added 12,000 net new client relationships during the quarter.

“The growth engine continues,” Eric Schimpf, co-president and co-head of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, said during a call to discuss earnings results. “Year-to-date, our advisors have already added more households than in all of 2022.” 

The firm boasted a strong quarter for cross-selling, with global wealth and investment management opening more than 36,500 bank accounts — up 24% year over year — and sending 52,000 referrals to other lines of Bank of America’s business. Lindsay Hans, co-president and co-head of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, called advisors a portal to introduce clients to the rest of what Bank of America can offer.

“We can deliver it all for clients,” Hans said.

“We have the platform to execute on any need any client in any stage-of-life demographic needs,” Schimpf added. “We just have to continue doubling down our efforts to make sure these people are exposed to the entire platform.” 

That helped contribute to a quarter that beat many Wall Street analysts’ expectations for the bank. Organic client growth, activity across businesses and the benefits of higher interest rates helped produce an 11% increase in revenue, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said in a statement.

“We delivered one of the strongest quarters and first-half net income periods in the company’s history,” Moynihan said. "We continue to see a healthy U.S. economy that is growing at a slower pace, with a resilient job market. All businesses performed well, and we saw improved market shares, particularly in our sales and trading and investment banking businesses.”

A particular bright spot was Bank of America’s fixed-income trading, which delivered a gain that helped offset net interest income that was slightly lower than expected. The bank reported revenue from fixed income, currencies and commodities increased 7% in the quarter to $2.7 billion.  

Along with Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup have all beaten earnings expectations for the second quarter.

Mark Schoeff Jr. contributed to this story.