As I write this I’ve read $BAC and $WFC’s reports from this morning. Wells was all – SURPRISE, visible profits. So I’m gong to leave them alone for the moment.

Bank of America – well, um, yeah. They posted a loss, and a wider than expected one at that. But it’s okay, because it gives me me what is probably my last chance to post a pic of Kennay in a $BAC post. Even though it was Brian Moynihan suffering on that conference call, it was Kennay who was CEO in Q4, so there he is! More info:

Third on the list of big US banks to report fourth-quarter earnings is Bank of America.

The bank had been expected to lose 52 cents a share on revenue of $26.84bn, but looks to have missed those expectations, reporting diluted EPS of 60 cents a share on revenue (net of interest expenses) of $25bn.

Okay, when you’re trying to repay bailout funds, life is pain. They also suffered from higher credit costs and lower net interest income. Noninterest income was up (thanks Merrill!)

Get this though – consumer credit losses declined??

Credit quality showed signs of improvement in most portfolios compared with the prior quarter, although credit costs remained high as global economic conditions remained challenging. Rising unemployment and underemployment kept consumers under stress and individuals spent longer periods without work. Losses, however, declined in most consumer portfolios from the prior quarter.
The impact of the weak economy on the commercial portfolios moderated somewhat with criticized loans decreasing and the growth of nonperforming loans slowing. Losses in the homebuilder portfolio dropped from the prior quarter and losses in the commercial domestic portfolio declined across a broad range of borrowers and industries.
Net charge-offs were US$1.2 billion lower than the prior quarter, driven by improvements across most consumer portfolios. Net charge-offs declined from the previous quarter for the first time in nearly four years. Nonperforming assets were US$35.7 billion, compared with US$33.8 billion at September 30, 2009, reflecting a slower rate of increase than in recent quarters.

If you recall past, complainant posts from me and some people on the Consumerist, $BAC cut all their consumer credit lines down to almost nil in 2009, so that probably explains why the losses aren’t lower – their credit card customers probably weren’t able to take on any additional debt, and just continue to shuffle around with what they already had assumed. Some people who got laid off or whatnot added to the nonperforming assets total, but most continued making their payments on all that stuff they bought during the economic free-for-all. Bad news for the retail sector but apparently (sort of) good news for $BAC’s bottom line. And Moynihan probably had something to do with that, so I’m not going to move him into our fail-CEO header just yet, though I’ve got the .psd file ready.