Bank of America beats

(Reuters) - Bank of America Corp reported a 9.8 percent rise in profit for the final quarter of the year, helped by lower expenses.

BofA, the No. 2 U.S. bank by assets, said its net income attributable to common shareholders rose to $3.01 billion, or $0.28 per share, in the three months ended Dec. 31, from $2.74 billion, or $0.25 per share, a year earlier.

Non-interest expenses fell 2.3% to $13.87 billion.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of $0.26 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. It was not immediately clear if the figures reported on Tuesday were comparable.

In the same quarter last year, Bank of America beat expectations, reporting earnings of $0.29 per share ($0.27 expected) on revenue of $7.8 billion ($8.14 expected).

The bank missed in the third quarter, too, reporting earnings per share of $0.34 ($0.64 expected) on revenue of $7.8 billion ($8.6 expected). Bond-trading revenue was down 42% year-on-year in the third quarter.

"The volatility in global markets in the third quarter led to a difficult environment, impacting in particular our Fixed Income business and our Asia Merchant Banking business," CEO James Gorman said in a statement at the time.

JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo reported Q4 earnings last week and all of them were a beat. Morgan Stanley also reports earnings on Tuesday morning, while Goldman Sachs will report on Wednesday.