(Reuters) -Bank of America on Wednesday raised its closely watched profitability target as the second-largest U.S. lender looks to grow its market share and catch up with larger Wall Street rivals.
Top executives are set to outline how BofA plans to grow in coming years and boost performance, as investors convene in Boston for the bank’s first investor day since 2011.
BofA is now targeting a 16% to 18% return on tangible common equity (ROTCE) – a key metric investors use to assess a bank’s performance – in the medium term, compared with its earlier forecast of mid-teens return.
The bank generated a 15.4% ROTCE in the third quarter, while larger rival JPMorgan achieved a 20% ROTCE in the same period, filings showed.
BofA is aiming to increase its share of investment banking fees by between 50 and 100 basis points in the next three to five years, while profit per share is expected to grow more than 12%.
In the global investment banking league tables, BofA has consistently lagged rivals JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs over the years.
The lender had in August promoted Faiz Ahmad and Mike Joo to co-heads of global investment banking as part of a broader leadership reshuffle in the business.
On the trading front, BofA is aiming to capture 9% of the industry revenue pool in the medium term. It now has a 7.6% market share, the bank said.
BofA expects net interest income, the difference between what banks earn on loans and pay on deposits, to grow by 5% to 7% annually over the next five years, driven by loan growth and fixed rate asset repricing.
Investors will also watch out for signals on succession plans, as longtime CEO Brian Moynihan completes nearly 16 years at the helm of BofA.
The CEO, who recently turned 66, announced plans to stay on through the decade after naming Dean Athanasia and Jim DeMare as co-presidents and Chief Financial Officer Alastair Borthwick as executive vice president.
Moynihan took the helm in 2010 in aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, which threatened to destabilize the global economy. He integrated the investment bank Merrill Lynch, which BofA bought from the brink of collapse, paid back a government bailout and slashed jobs.
After a rocky start, Moynihan engineered a momentous turnaround, driven by an oft-repeated mantra of “responsible growth,”, but investors are urging the bank to make a higher return on its investments.
(Reporting by Saeed Azhar in Boston and Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
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