The Brexit vote last month gave a small boost to second-quarter profit at Bank of New York Mellon, but the low interest rate environment continued to bedevil the custody bank in many segments of its business.
Net income at the $372 billion-asset company fell 1% to $825 million from a year earlier. Earnings per share were 75 cents, in line with the average estimate of analysts polled by Bloomberg. Revenue fell 2.8% to $3.8 billion.
Fee-based revenue fell 2% to $2.9 billion on lower levels of investment management and performance fees, as BNY Mellon was hurt by the unfavorable impact of the stronger U.S. dollar.
- Illinois
Costs from a lawsuit settlement, the modification of some customers' contracts and employee severance costs combined to push down second-quarter profit at Northern Trust in Chicago.
July 20 -
The three custody banks had been projected to post weak second-quarter results because of a lull in foreign exchange trading. Then Brexit happened, and everything changed.
July 19
Revenue from foreign exchange trading fell 3% to $182 million. However, on a quarterly basis, FX trading revenue rose 4%. The United Kingdom's surprise vote last month to leave the European Union contributed to a rise in trading volatility late in the quarter, boosting the FX results.
"In terms of Brexit, it was a little bit frustrating," Todd Gibbons, chief financial officer, said during a Thursday conference call. "What we saw was a little bit of an increase, a little flurry in FX activity at the end of the quarter. But that was effectively given back by the hedge that we have on investment management because of the very low interest rates."
Net interest income fell 2% to $767 million on the negative impact of interest rate hedging and higher premium amortization adjustments.
Noninterest expense fell 4% to $2.6 billion, benefiting from a decline in a wide range of categories, including lower compensation and legal costs. BNY Mellon also benefited from the impact of a stronger U.S. dollar.
Money market fee waivers fell 61% to $26 million, as the Federal Reserve's interest rate hike in December helped BNY Mellon avoid the need to implement fee waivers.
Assets under custody and administration rose 3.1% to $29.5 trillion, and assets under management fell 2.1% to $1.7 trillion. During the quarter, BNY Mellon secured $167 billion of new asset-servicing contracts. That represented an 82% decline from a year earlier, but it was a 318% increase compared with the first quarter.
