Bank of America Corporation, the second largest bank in the United States, said Thursday that its profit fell 32 percent in the third quarter as trading losses and write-downs on a wide variety of loans offset solid revenue growth in most businesses. The company said it would respond with potentially major strategic changes to its investment bank, the division that dragged down the company's profits, according to Chairman and Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis. “Overall earnings in the quarter were not acceptable to us,” Lewis said on a conference call with analysts, the Associated Press reported. “We believe we should have performed better,” he said. “The probability of changes and eliminations of some businesses and infrastructure ... is very high,” he added. Bank of America's shares fell more than 3 percent in afternoon trading and the stock market as a whole reacted badly to the news. The report showed net income at the bank fell to $3.7 billion, or 82 cents per share, in the three months ending September 30 from $5.42 billion, or $1.18 per share, a year ago. The bank's revenue fell 12 percent to $16.3 billion from $18.49 billion last year. Analysts had forecast earnings of $1.06 per share on revenue of $18.3 billion Lewis said August disruption in the financial markets caused a $1.33 billion or 93 percent fall in the bank's earnings from its global corporate and investment bank. Its expense provision for the unit increased $865 million due to consumer and small business credit costs rising from post bankruptcy reform lows, growth and seasoning in various portfolios and stress in several portfolios because of the problems in the U.S. housing market. Lewis said he expects to complete an internal review this month and that changes could be announced later this year or early next year. The largest bank in the U.S., Citigroup, saw its profit drop 57 percent to $2.38 billion this quarter. The third-largest U.S. bank, JPMorgan, saw its profit up 2 percent to $3.37 billion.
