The Bank of New York Mellon (BK), which made headlines last year after agreeing to settle with Bank of America (BAC) to resolve legacy issues on pools of securitized mortgages, saw its first quarter 2012 profit slide to $619 million, or 52 cents a share, down from $623 million, or 50 cents a share, a year earlier.
While overall profit fell, shareholders ended up seeing higher earnings per share.
During the most recent period, the company purchased 17.3 million shares, or $371 million, of its own stock.
Total revenue came in at $3.6 billion.
BNY Mellon’s investment business saw a decline in several areas with investment services fees falling 4% from last year to $1.6 billion and investment management and performance fees falling 2% year-over-year to $745 million.
Since early last year, investors and the New York attorney general have been trying to delay and prevent BNY Mellon’s settlement agreement with Countrywide. As trustee of Countrywide ABS, the firm has been trying to resolve outstanding mortgage issues that stem from assets under its custodial management.
The bank — as trustee — and Bank of America (Countrywide) agreed to resolve some of the legacy loan issues for $8.5 billion last year. The settlement sparked a lawsuit from investors and intervention from New York’s attorney general.
Still, in the most recent quarter, the bank increased the number of assets it manages and oversees as custodian. Bank of New York Mellon said assets under its management grew 6% in Q1 to $1.3 trillion and assets under its administration or custody grew 4% to $26.6 trillion. The increase in both categories was driven by higher market values and an uptick in new business, the firm said.
