BOK Financial Reported Higher Fees, Rising Costs

BOK Financial in Tulsa, Okla., reported quarterly earnings that held steady as higher fee revenues offset rising operating expenses.

The $29.1 billion-asset company's profit slid by $100,000 from a year earlier, to $75.6 million. Earnings per share of $1.09 were 3 cents short of the average estimate of analysts polled by Bloomberg.

Fees and commissions revenue rose 9%, to $158.5 million.. The only fee-related areas that declined from a year earlier were deposit service charges and bank-owned life insurance.

Meanwhile, operating expenses rose 5% from a year earlier, to $221.8 million. This increase was largely due to increased risk management and regulatory compliance costs; professional fees and services expenses were up $7.5 million from a year earlier.

Loan growth remained robust during the quarter, as commercial, commercial real estate and consumer balances all increased. Residential mortgage loan balances fell 3%, to less than $2 billion.

BOK recorded no loan-loss provision in the third quarter.

"We delivered strong profitability while executing on several strategic objectives, including positioning our balance sheet for an expected rising interest rate environment in 2015 and investing in our information technology infrastructure," Steven Bradshaw, BOK Fiinancial’s president and chief executive, said in a release.