Bank of New York Posts Earnings Jump

(Updated with stock price movements.)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Bank of New York Mellon(BK) stock has added 3% at $30.40 after reporting a sharp increase in fourth-quarter earnings as the bank raised equity and repaid the U.S. government's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Bank of New York posted earnings of $594 million, up from $66 million in the year-ago period.

Net income applicable to common shareholders was $593 million, or 49 cents a share, compared with $28 million, or 2 cents a share, a year earlier. Fourth-quarter earnings from continuing operations were 59 cents a share.

"We saw excellent growth in asset and wealth management revenues this quarter, which benefited from long-term flows, the contribution from Insight Investment Management, higher equity values and stronger investment performance," said Robert Kelly, Bank of New York's chairman and CEO, in a statement Wednesday.

However, the persistent low interest rate environment globally increasingly challenged the bank's net interest revenue and fee revenue, Kelly said.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the bank to post earnings of 51 cents a share.

In 2009, Bank of New York raised equity and repaid TARP, successfully completed the restructuring of the bank's investment securities portfolio and "ended the year with strong capital ratios."

-- Reported by Andrea Tse in New York

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