Bank of NY Mellon Profit Rises 12%, But Misses Views

Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK) weighed in Tuesday with a 12% rise in first-quarter profits as the custody banking giant capitalized on higher fee revenues.

The New York-based financial-services company said it earned $625 million, or 50 cents a share, last quarter, compared with a profit of $559 million, or 46 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, it earned 55 cents a share, trailing consensus calls for 57 cents.

Net revenue increased 9% to $3.65 billion as total fee revenue improved to $2.83 billion from $2.52 billion the year before. Investment services fees jumped 27% to $1.7 billion, while investment management fees increased 11% to $764 million.

“Over the past year, unlike many, we continued to grow revenue and earnings despite the challenging environment, and did so with a clean balance sheet,” CEO Robert Kelly said in a statement. “A fundamental strength of our business model is the ability to rapidly grow capital and generate a high return on it.”

Bank of New York Mellon said its assets under management increased 11% to $1.2 trillion last quarter and its assets under custody/administration rose 14% to $25.5 trillion.

Meanwhile, Bank of New York Mellon said it did not have a provision for credit losses in the first quarter, compared with a charge of $35 million a year earlier and $22 million in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Shares of Bank of New York Mellon eased 1% to $28.91 Tuesday morning, leaving the them off just over 3% in 2011 and nearly 10% from a year ago.