Wells Fargo, the biggest US bank by market capitalisation, broke a streak of record profits over 15 quarters to report net income of $5.7 billion in the second quarter, although it was higher than the same period a year ago.

Earnings rose 3.8 per cent from the same quarter a year ago, to comfortably beat analyst estimates of $5.37 billion compiled by Bloomberg, but were below the $5.8 billion reported in the first quarter.

Earnings per share of $1.01 were better than a year ago and in line with analyst estimates.

Wells Fargo had been the stand out performer among the big US banks. Its business has been insulated from the declines in fixed income, currencies and commodities trading that has hurt the major Wall Street banks. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2014