The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (BK) just put up some seriously impressive numbers. The custody banking giant reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $2.08 per share on Tuesday, beating Wall Street's expectations of $1.98, while total revenue jumped 7% year over year to $5.179 billion against estimates of $5.136 billion.
What's driving the growth? Pretty much everything. Fee revenue climbed 5% to $3.698 billion, and net interest income surged 13% to $1.346 billion. Net income applicable to common shareholders increased 26% to $1.427 billion, with the pre-tax operating margin hitting 36%. Return on equity came in at 14.5%, while return on tangible common equity reached a robust 26.6%.
The quarter did include $51 million in notable expenses, mostly severance costs, though this was partially offset by an adjustment to the FDIC special assessment. Overall non-interest expenses totaled $3.360 billion, basically flat year over year, or up 4% if you exclude those one-time items.
Here's something interesting: the provision for credit losses was actually a $26 million benefit, driven by improvements in commercial real estate exposure and a more favorable macroeconomic forecast. The bank's effective tax rate was 20.4%, and net interest margin expanded to 1.38%, reflecting the reinvestment of maturing securities at higher yields and balance sheet growth, though deposit margin compression ate into some of those gains.
Balance Sheet Momentum
The fundamentals look solid. Average deposits rose 8% year over year to $310.482 billion, while average loans increased 11% to $76.678 billion. More impressively, assets under custody and administration jumped 14% to $59.3 trillion—yes, trillion with a T. Assets under management climbed 7% to $2.2 trillion.
Breaking down the business segments: Securities Services revenue increased 7% to $2.497 billion with a 34% pre-tax operating margin. Within that, Asset Servicing revenue rose 8% to $1.945 billion, and Issuer Services revenue was up 5% to $552 million. Segment assets under custody climbed 14% to $43.0 trillion, and the market value of securities on loan jumped 24% to $604 billion.
Market and Wealth Services had an even better quarter, with revenue up 8% to $1.805 billion and an impressive 49% pre-tax operating margin. Pershing revenue increased 5% to $741 million, Payments and Trade revenue rose 11% to $524 million, and Clearance and Collateral Management revenue climbed 10% to $540 million.
Full-Year Performance and Capital Returns
For the full year 2025, BNY Mellon reported diluted earnings per share of $7.40 and adjusted diluted EPS of $7.50. Total revenue increased 8% to $20.080 billion, and net income applicable to common shareholders rose 22% to $5.306 billion. The full-year pre-tax operating margin was 35% and return on tangible common equity hit 26.1%.
The bank was generous with shareholders, returning $5.0 billion of capital in 2025—$1.4 billion in dividends and $3.5 billion in share repurchases. That's a full-year payout ratio of 94%, which shows management's confidence in the business.
From a capital strength perspective, the CET1 ratio stood at 11.9% as of December 31, 2025, with a Tier 1 leverage ratio of 6.0%. The average liquidity coverage ratio was 112% and the average net stable funding ratio was 130%, with total loss-absorbing capacity ratios exceeding minimum requirements.