Bank of America CEO Says Trump Brings Renewed Optimism

President Trump is bringing a renewed sense of optimism to banks and small business according  to Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan.

“With the clarity that the U.S. is going to be more friendly to [small businesses], they are feeling really frisky,” he told The FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo. “It will take time for all of that to come through the economy but we feel very good.”

The bank just reported $18 billion in earnings (after taxes) according to Moynihan. The second or third highest earnings in the history of the company he said.

He also said the company is better off now that it was a year ago.

“We are about 80% U.S. and 20% outside the U.S.,” he said.  “So when the U.S. is going well, it’s good for us.”

With expectations of less regulation and higher interest rates, he sees a faster pace of growth for the company in the coming year.

“Whatever happens is better than we had before in people’s minds,” he said. “We are seeing it come through in our stock prices as well as our peers and it’s just that view of things coming together all at once.”

He added, “Generally we believe the economy at Bank of America, our investment economy’s going to go faster in the U.S. than it grew this year.”