Bank of America, the latest to post its third-quarter earnings for 2015, has logged an overall solid set of results, although profit at its global wealth and investment management arm took a tumble.

Net income at Bank of America slipped to $4.5 billion at end-September 2015 from $5.3 billion in the prior quarter, although is up substantially on the year-ago period, when it posted a net loss of $232 million due to legal expenses.

The North Carolina-headquartered US banking giant reported $0.37 per diluted share for Q3 2015, compared to $0.04 per share a year ago. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected earnings of $0.33 a share this quarter, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, net income at BoA's global wealth and investment management arm dropped by $156 million (19 per cent) year-on-year to $656 million at end-September 2015, and is also down from $689 million at the end of this year's second quarter, due to a drop in net interest income on account of persistently low interest rates, and rising market volatility, BoA said.

GWIM revenue is also down by $198 million (4 per cent) to stand at $4.5 billion, as higher asset management fees were more than offset by lower transactional revenue, among other factors. “This is the continuation of a trend in transactional revenue as clients continue to migrate from brokerage to managed relationships, compounded by lower markets and muted new issue activity,” BoA said.

The third-quarter 2015 pre-tax margin was 23 per cent at the firm's GWIM unit, down from 27 per cent in the year-ago quarter.

Meanwhile, non-interest expense increased slightly from the year-ago quarter to $3.4 billion, as litigation-related costs were higher and the number of wealth advisors grew by 6 per cent, the firm noted in its latest earnings release.

Among other business highlights at BoA's GWIM arm, the number of wealth advisors increased by 998 from the year-ago quarter to 18,037; Q3 2015 long-term AuM flows of $4.4 billion were the 25th consecutive quarter of positive flows; average deposit balances rose 2 per cent from the year-ago quarter to $244.0 billion; average loan balances increased 10 per cent to $133.2 billion; and asset management fees rose 2 per cent to $2.1 billion.

Also of note, BoA's latest financial results are the first for chief financial officer Paul Donofrio, who took over from Bruce Thompson in August, as was reported here among other management changes.