America’s second biggest bank wrote off $1.5 billion of bad loans in the first three months of the year amid mounting losses from credit cards and its exposure to a faltering offices market.
Bank of America said that net charge-offs of debts it did not expect to recover had jumped from $807 million a year ago to $1.5 billion.
The rise was driven mainly by credit cards, where its loss rate climbed to 3.62 per cent from 3.07 per cent in the final three months of last year, but souring loans linked to offices also contributed to the increase.
Overall net profits for the quarter slid to $6.7 billion from $8.2 billion a year earlier. Provisions for credit losses increased to $1.3 billion from $931
