Bank Of America

Bank Of America, Even as the company reported a $2 billion profit in the fourth quarter Thursday, what was once the country’s largest bank continued to shrink, shedding tens of billions of dollars from its balance sheet and laying off nearly 7,000 employees.

The results mark the clearest evidence so far of CEO Brian Moynihan’s view that bigger isn’t better, and Wall Street seemed to agree — Bank of America shares rose more than 2 percent to just below $7 a share, the highest level since October. The boost was a rare break for long-suffering Bank of America investors, who watched its shares dive by more than 50 percent last year.

While the profit was a turnaround from the fourth quarter of 2010, when Bank of America lost $1.2 billion, it was largely a result of one-time gains. They included $2.9 billion from the sale of a stake in China Construction Bank and $1.2 billion on the exchange of preferred stock for common stock.

Bank Of America Online Banking

Bank Of America Online Banking, NEW YORK – AP – Bank of America Corp. said that its online banking service was reduced for about four hours but the service is restored.

A representative of the country’s largest bank, Tara Burke, refused to specify a reason for discontinuation of Friday, except to say that this was a system of “temporary” issue.

She could not say whether the site has undergone a similar cut-linear before.

The bank, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, said the service was restored around 17:15 EDT. The blackout began at around 13:25 EDT. Some customers may still have problems in the firm due to the volume of people trying to access the site.

Customers can also obtain account information at ATMs or branches. Burke said none of 18,000 Bank of America ATMs was affected by the blackout.