6 takeaways from Bank of America earnings include tariffs, volatile markets

Bank of America told investors Tuesday it has seen positive growth so far this year and expects to end the year strong despite an uncertain outlook due to tariffs and policy changes.

Officials at the Charlotte-based bank essentially divided their First Quarter earnings call Tuesday into talking about the bank’s growth in the first quarter and concerns over market volatility and potential changes in the economy.

Bank of America reported first-quarter revenue rose 6% to $27.4 billion over last year.

Deposits reached $2 trillion, up 8% from a mid-2023 low point, CEO Brian Moynihan said. The bank also grew commercial loans and marked the 25th straight quarter of net new checking account growth. “The story of the first quarter is a strong operating performance.”

The second part of the presentation focused more on concerns about potential changes in the economy due to market volatility, comparing 2025 expectations to pressures of the 2008 recession and the 2020 pandemic.

Bank of America also has had at least two rounds of layoffs this year, The Charlotte Observer previously reported, including 150 investment division workers last month. Bank officials did not discuss the layoffs during the earnings call.

Here are six key points from Bank of America’s earnings call:

No recession looming

Bank of America’s research team, like others, does not believe the U.S. will fall in recession this year.

However, the bank lowered GDP growth rates and expects no interest rate cuts this year, Moynihan said. Gross Domestic Product is used to gauge the overall health and size of an economy.

Consumers are still spending

Bank of America customer data show money moving across all our consumer spending methods — debit and credit cards, and checks — grew at a 4.4% pace in the first quarter compared to the same time last year, Moynihan said.

“Consumer spending has been consistently growing year over year,” he said, which includes the first part of this month.

Some retailers may say that their sales are slower while others are picking up, and that reflects the change in consumer spending behavior. “But the consumer keeps pushing money into the economy,” Moynihan said.

The bank’s business clients say they remain profitable, liquid and have strong results, Moynihan said.

Still, he said, uncertainty around the tariffs pushed by President Donald Trump and other policies in the future could change that.

“We continue to watch for signs the environment is actually changing,” Moynihan said.

Online bank transactions expanding

Bank of America saw more than 14 billion log-ins in 2024, while interaction with its virtual financial assistant Erica surpassed 2.7 billion, Moynihan said. The bank launched Erica in 2018.

Transactions sent through Zelle at Bank of America are not only triple the number of checks written by the bank’s customers, but also 1.3 times the number of checks written plus the number of cash transactions taking money out of the ATM, Moynihan said.

“Digitally enabled sales in our consumer products of businesses across the board reached 65% of total sales,” he said.

Global markets wait on policy

Bank of America’s global banking produced $1.9 billion, “modestly lower than a year,” CFO Alastair Borthwick said.

“Our clients are simply waiting on more clarity on trade policy in the regulatory environment before committing to deals,” he said.

Deregulation offers ‘relief’

Asked by an analyst how deregulation would help the Bank of America’s business, Moynihan said, “I think the new administration has made it clear that they’re going to reduce the regulatory burden.”

There are two ways the Trump administration is doing that, Moynihan said: One is less regulations and refining regulations that have “gone too far.”

Second is reducing the size of the federal administration that brings the regulatory inquiries and those expenses.

“So we’re seeing some relief,” Moynihan said. “It’s critically important that we get this rebalance.”

Full-year expectation unchanged for Bank of America

Despite tariffs uncertainty and market volatility, Bank of America still expects a strong year as previously forecast.

Once all of the different policies including tariffs and deregulation come together, Bank of America is positioned even in a slight recession to fare well, Moynihan said.

Bank of America has 213,000 employees with more than 19,000 workers in the Charlotte region.

This story was originally published April 15, 2025 at 4:15 PM with the headline "6 takeaways from Bank of America earnings include tariffs, volatile markets."