The Wall Street Journal-20080118-Earnings Digest -- Financial Services- Bank of New York Mellon Corp-
Return to: The_Wall_Street_Journal-20080118
Earnings Digest -- Financial Services: Bank of New York Mellon Corp.
Bank of New York Mellon Corp.'s fourth-quarter profit dropped 68%, as the company took charges on collateralized debt obligations and a conduit it sponsors, and because a $1.22 billion gain on the sale of a retail unit boosted year-earlier earnings. The company that resulted from the merger of Bank of New York and Mellon Financial Corp. said the latest quarter's results included a charge of $180 million to restructure and consolidate the assets of Three Rivers Funding, an asset-backed commercial-paper conduit. Commercial paper is often issued by special-purpose vehicles called conduits that don't appear on bank balance sheets. Bank of New York Mellon also took a $118 million charge to write down the value of collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs. "Great quarter on both revenue growth and expense control," wrote analysts at Banc of America Securities in a research note. "Proactive consolidation of [the] conduit should be viewed as positive."
