Bank of America
Bank of America Corporation
20 quarters tracked through Q1 2026
Key takeaways
- 01
No clear trend, by design.
Bank of America's card net charge-off rate bounced between roughly 5.0% and 6.1% across the trailing year, landing at 5.40% in Q1 2026. Neither healing like the subprime issuers nor deteriorating like Wells Fargo — BAC sits in the stable middle.
- 02
Mid-prime, mid-cycle.
At 5.40%, BAC's loss rate sits between the prime banks (JPM 4.40%, Citi 4.50%) and the higher-loss books (USB 6.84%, WFC 7.54%). Its borrower mix lands it squarely in the middle of the pack.
- 03
Earnings steady.
Card-segment net income of $3.06B on revenue of $11.05B, with provision ($1.13B) tracking close to net charge-offs ($1.41B). A franchise reserving roughly in line with realized losses.
Q1 2026 · Editorial brief · By the numbers
5.40%
Net charge-off rate
Mid-pack; range-bound 5.0-6.1% over the trailing year.
$102.8B
Card receivables
Large prime-skewed consumer card book.
$3.06B
Card-segment net income
Steady; provision near realized losses.
$11.05B
Card net revenue
Stable revenue base.
Q1 2026 · Editorial brief
The Choppy Middle
Bank of America's card book is the launch universe's median — and that is exactly what makes it useful. While Synchrony heals, Wells Fargo's losses climb, and Capital One and Citi build reserves against improving credit, Bank of America's net charge-off rate simply chops between 5.0% and 6.1%, landing at 5.40% in Q1 2026. It is the control case the outliers are measured against.
Every signal needs a baseline. In the launch universe, Bank of America is it.
What the headline numbers say
BAC's card net charge-off rate ran 5.72% (Q1 2025), 6.07%, 5.38%, 4.95%, and 5.40% in Q1 2026 — a range-bound, no-clear-trend pattern. Card receivables held near $102.8B. Card-segment net income of $3.06B on $11.05B of revenue, with provision of $1.13B against $1.41B of net charge-offs.
Bank of America's consumer card book skews prime, anchored by long-tenured relationship customers. That mix produces neither the volatility of the subprime issuers nor the growth-into-losses dynamic visible at Wells Fargo.
What we'll be watching
The median is informative mostly when it stops being the median:
1 · Does the band break?
Two consecutive quarters clearly below 5% (joining the healers) or above 6% (joining the stressed) would be the first real directional signal from BAC's book.
2 · Reserve posture
BAC currently provisions near realized losses. A divergence in either direction would tell us management's forward view has changed.
Bank of America's Q1 2026 is quietly valuable: the steady center that makes everyone else's movement legible.
By the editors. Cardintel.
Cardintel
Issuer brief · Q1 2026
Bank of America
The Choppy Middle
24 pages · cardintel.co
Full report
Download the 24-page Q1 2026 brief
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Credit quality
Net charge-off rate
5.40%
+45 bps
Q1 2026, annualized
30+ day delinquency rate
0.45%
+0 bps
Q1 2026
Net interest margin
—
card segment NIM — sparse
Return on assets
—
consolidated, Q1 2026, annualized
Scale & earnings
Card receivables (EOP)
$102.8B
-3.0%
end of Q1 2026
Card net revenue
$11.0B
+6.1%
Q1 2026, card segment
Provision for credit losses
$1.1B
+12.2%
Q1 2026, card segment
Net charge-offs ($)
$1.4B
+9.6%
Q1 2026
Financial summary
P&L, balance sheet, and key drivers
Standardized issuer-summary format used across all coverage. Switch tabs to compare Bank of America against a peer; change the table quarter independently of the page anchor.
| Metric | Bank of America Q1 2026 | Prior Q Q4 2025 | Prior Y Q1 2025 | QoQ | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Card net revenue | $11.0B | — | — | — | — |
| Provision for credit losses | $1.1B | — | $1.3B | — | −12.4% |
| Fee income (non-interest) | $2.1B | — | $2.0B | — | +3.4% |
| Net interest incomeSprint 8 — split out of card net revenue | — | — | — | — | — |
| Noninterest expenseSprint 8 — segment expense extraction | — | — | — | — | — |
| Pretax income | $4.1B | — | — | — | — |
| Net income | $3.1B | — | $2.5B | — | +20.9% |
Generated commentary
Bank of America's P&L in Q1 2026: pretax income rose 13.9% to $4.1B vs Q3 2024; provision for credit losses rose 12.2% to $1.1B vs Q3 2025; net income fell 11.0% to $3.1B vs Q3 2025. Period-over-period changes flagged below; sparse rows compare against the metric's last reported period rather than the calendar prior quarter.
$ in cents (formatted as $B / $M / $). Rows marked “pending” are tracked and will populate as the corresponding ingestion lands. Source: SEC EDGAR 10-K / 10-Q segment data and FFIEC Call Reports.
Net charge-off rate — 5-year history
Net charge-off rate for Bank of America (solid) vs. the bank peer median (dashed) and 90th percentile (dotted). Use the controls above to overlay individual peers or a macroeconomic series on the right axis. Source: SEC 10-K/10-Q filings and FFIEC Call Reports; macro series via FRED.
Source: SEC EDGAR 10-Q filings + FFIEC Call Reports. Updated June 4, 2026.Methodology