Bank of America Q3 2026 earnings: regulatory charge weighs on profit despite loan growth
BofA's Q3 2026 profit was dented by a $1.2B regulatory settlement charge, and both adjusted EPS and revenue missed Wall Street estimates, even as core lending income grew.
| Q3 2026 | Reported | Expected | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| EPS | $1.08 | $1.16 | -7.0% |
| Revenue | $29.96B | $31.32B | -4.3% |
Key takeaways
- Both headline numbers missed Wall Street forecasts: adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.08 versus the roughly $1.16 analysts expected, and revenue of about $30.0 billion fell short of the roughly $31.3 billion forecast.
- The quarter’s profit was reduced by a $1.2 billion charge to settle regulatory issues tied to anti-money-laundering and sanctions-compliance shortcomings with the OCC and FinCEN; including that one-time hit, GAAP net income was about $6.9 billion (roughly $0.91 per share), well below the $8.3 billion net income BofA posted a year earlier.
- Away from the charge, the core lending business stayed healthy: net interest income - what the bank earns from loans and deposits minus what it pays out - rose about 8% from a year ago, as consumer banking, wealth management, and commercial banking all grew loans and deposits.
- Markets-facing businesses were softer, with sales-and-trading and investment-banking fee revenue both lower than a year ago as dealmaking activity slowed.
- The bank returned $8.3 billion to shareholders in the quarter, including about $6 billion of share buybacks, continuing a steady pace of capital returns.
- Trailing-twelve-month profitability stayed solid heading into the charge: an operating margin near 33% and a net profit margin near 30% mean the bank has been converting roughly a third of its revenue into profit over the past year, and a return on equity of about 11% shows shareholders’ money has been generating a modest but steady return.
- CEO Brian Moynihan pointed to the bank’s diversified business mix - spanning consumer banking, wealth management, and commercial banking - as the reason growth in loans, deposits, and net interest income continued even as trading and dealmaking cooled.
- Management reiterated its forward outlook for net interest income growth of roughly 8% for full-year 2026 and at least 8% for 2027, signaling confidence that the lending business will keep expanding even with the one-time regulatory hit behind it.
How the stock took it
Bank of America Corp closed at $53.96 on Oct 13, 2026, the last session before the report, and at $51.70 on Oct 15, 2026, the first session after it — -4.2% across the report.
Closes from the market's daily record. Each figure spans the report date — from the last session that closed before it to the first that closed after — because a company may report before the open or after the close.
Fundamentals
| Metric | Value | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Operating margin | 32.7% | Trailing 12 months |
| Net profit margin | 30.2% | Trailing 12 months |
| Pretax margin | 32.7% | Trailing 12 months |
| EPS | $4.51 | Trailing 12 months |
| Revenue growth (YoY) | 99.4% | Trailing 12 months |
| EPS growth (YoY) | 25.8% | Trailing 12 months |
| Return on equity | 11.1% | Trailing 12 months |
Sources: company report · earnings call · Pulse 2.0 / MarketBeat coverage