Bank of America Corporation today reported net income of $340 million for the third quarter of 2012, compared to $6.2 billion in the third quarter of 2011.

The third quarter of 2012 was negatively impacted by $1.9 billion of debit valuation adjustments (DVA) and fair value option (FVO) adjustments related to the improvement in the company's credit spreads, $1.6 billion for total litigation expense, including a charge for the previously announced settlement of the Merrill Lynch class action litigation, and a charge of $0.8 billion related to the repricing of certain deferred tax assets due to a reduction in the U.K. corporate tax rate.
 
Relative to the year-ago quarter, the results for the third quarter of 2012 were driven by improved credit quality across most major portfolios, increased sales and trading revenue (excluding impact of DVA), higher mortgage banking income and increased investment banking income.

"We are doing more business with our customers and clients: Deposits are up; mortgage originations are up; we surpassed 11 million in mobile customers; small business lending is up 27 percent year over year; loans to our commercial clients rose for the seventh consecutive quarter; and our corporate clients made us the second-ranked global investment banking firm," said Brian Moynihan, chief executive officer. "Our strategy is taking hold even as we work through a challenging economy and continue to clean up legacy issues."

"Our focus on strengthening the balance sheet continued this quarter," said Chief Financial Officer Bruce Thompson. "We ended the quarter with record Tier 1 common capital ratio of 11.41 percent and an estimated Basel 3 Tier 1 common capital ratio of 8.97 percent, up from 7.95 percent as of the second quarter of 20121. With these gains, we have turned our attention to driving core earnings."

Read the full Bank of America press release.