BNY Mellon first-quarter profits fall 1% Bank of New York Mellon, the world's biggest custody bank, reported a 1 per cent fall in first-quarter profits after low rates curbed the earnings it generates from lending and investing securities. The bank, charged with safeguarding and lending out clients" assets, posted earnings of $619m, compared with the $625m reported for the same period last year. That equates to 52 cents a share - just meeting analysts" estimates and marginally better than the 50 cents a share made last year. Still, the amount of assets under custody at the New York-based bank rose 4 per cent to a record $26.6tn, helped by the recent rally in markets and the winning of new business, BNY Mellon said. "We enjoyed solid sequential growth in investment management and services fees, as we benefited from new business wins and improved equity values," Gerald Hassell, chairman and chief executive, said in a statement. BNYMellon's two biggest competitors in the custody bank sector - Northern Trust and State Street - also reported first-quarter earnings this week. Northern Trust revealed a modest 7 per cent increase in net income to $161.2m, while State Street said that its profits dropped 9 per cent. Like its two competitors, BNYMellon has been shedding jobs to help trim expenses amid continued low interest rates. Such lower rates wreak havoc with the bread and butter activities of custodian banks" businesses; cutting into their ability to create income through securities lending for clients. BNYMellon's net interest margin - a key measure of its profitability - fell from 1.49 per cent to 1.32 per cent in the quarter. The bank said nearly half of the deposits it accepts on behalf of customers were in the form of more liquid and lower-yielding assets, which also cut into the bank's earnings.