Bank of America BAC expects strong growth in noninterest income during the second quarter of 2026, driven by robust trading activity and improving investment banking performance. At the Bernstein 42nd Annual Strategic Decisions Conference on Wednesday, BAC’s CEO Brian Moynihan projected solid growth in trading revenues for the second quarter of 2026. Trading revenues are expected to jump nearly 15% year over year, driven by higher client activity and market volatility. The expected growth will mark the 17th straight quarter of year-over-year growth in sales and trading revenues for the company.
The anticipated growth reflects higher client activity and easing volatility from the tariff-related market disruptions, which were witnessed in the prior-year quarter. In the first quarter of 2026, the company’s sales and trading revenues (excluding net DVA) rose 12% year over year to $6.32 billion. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for sales and trading revenues is pegged at $5.4 billion for the second quarter of 2026, indicating 13% year-over-year growth.
During the conference, management stated that global deal-making activity has begun to recover after an initial slowdown following the outbreak of the Iran war, as companies and investors regain confidence and move ahead with major transactions. As such, investment banking (IB) pipelines remain “pretty good,” supported by steady deal-making activity. Wealth management revenues are also expected to rise in the low-teens percentage range year over year in the second quarter of 2026.
Strength across trading, IB and wealth management businesses is expected to support non-interest income growth. As such, the consensus estimate for the metric is pegged at $14.02 billion, suggesting an 18.9% rise from the prior-year quarter.
In addition, Bank of America indicated that net interest income could reach the upper end of its 6%–8% growth range for 2026, supported by higher yields on fixed-rate assets and steady consumer spending. The outlook reflects confidence in underlying economic resilience, even amid inflation concerns and elevated borrowing costs.
What Does BAC’s Peers Expect for IB & Trading in Q2?
At the same Bernstein Conference, JPMorgan JPM and Wells Fargo WFC also outlined updated expectations across investment banking and trading businesses for the second quarter of 2026.
JPMorgan indicated that IB fees could rise nearly 10% or more year over year, reflecting improving deal pipelines and stronger capital markets activity, although higher expenses may limit operating leverage. Further, JPM noted that its markets business, which includes its trading operations, is also on track to grow 11% in the second quarter and could perform "a little better" than that forecast.
On the other hand, Wells Fargo expects a stronger improvement in fee-generating businesses, with IB and trading revenues projected to increase in the mid-teens percentage range year over year in the second quarter of 2026. WFC also expects wealth management revenues to grow in the low double-digit percentage range year over year, driven by strong client engagement and continued expansion in relationship-based banking activities, indicating broad-based strength in fee income.
BAC’s Price Performance & Zacks Rank
BAC shares have gained 15.5% in the past year compared with the industry’s growth of 23%.
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Bank of America currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).