IN BRIEF (Page 17)

BofA in the red

Bank of America Corp (BofA), the largest US bank, posted its third loss in the past five quarters, driven by the cost of repaying US bailout funds and defaults on consumer loans.

The fourth-quarter loss of $194 million before the costs of repaying the US Treasury Department narrowed from the record loss of $1.8 billion, or 44 cents a share, a year earlier, Bank of America said. Including those costs, the net loss to common shareholders was $5.2 billion, or 60 cents a share, compared with a loss of $2.4 billion, or 48 cents. The average estimate of 20 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was a loss per share of 52 cents.