Bank Earnings Season 3Q2014: Just that $5.5 Bln in legal settlements, else we had profit from Mr Moynihan’s stewardship

The next month sees  the famed annual banking conference in New York from Merrill Lynch analysts but the other mergers haven’t really integrated well with Bank of America, so much so that the bank is on target only when analysts are well, expecting losses from the bank, which indeed the bank shares had responded in kind today morning as well in the pre market after announcement of smaller losses

The bank added $15 Bln in Mortgage originations and increased net income in 4 out of 5 businesses to no avail after the $5.3 bln added to its nearly $17 Bln settlement in the fall and as expected for both Morgan Stanley and BofA, the banks returned to their aces in the hole in Wealth management and feee income from retail accounts to post improved results nonetheless

Operating expenses were down $1 Bln over the year yet a large $14.4 Bln on a $21 Bln topline , making its profitability not yet competitive even as the year added to 2013 celebrations of bad days gone away and Book value returning to positive territory and double digits for the bank

SLR requirements at BofA have reached a somewhat respectable 5.5% or more than 18 times (Loans/Leverage vs Capital )

The DOJ costs amounted to $0.43 cents per share