Wells Fargo & Co. said revenues skyrocketed in the first three months of the year after the bank released some of the money it had previously set aside for bad loans in the pandemic.
The San Francisco-based lender posted a first-quarter profit of $ 4.74 billion on Wednesday, up from $ 653 million a year earlier. A year ago, Wells Fargo and other major banks set aside billions of dollars to prepare for a coronavirus recession, squeezing their profits at the time.
Earnings per share were $ 1.05, exceeding the forecast of 71 cents in a FactSet poll of analysts.
Wells Fargo said it had sales of $ 18.06 billion, up 2% from $ 17.72 billion a year earlier. That was better than the $ 17.52 billion analysts expected.
The bank’s seven-fold increase in profits came during an economic recovery. That has prompted banks to release some of the money they had put away last year to protect against soured loans, boosting their bottom line.