New York  -  US banking group Bank of America Corp. reported Monday that its first-quarter net income fell to 1.21 billion dollars, plunging 77 per cent from 5.26 billion dollars a year earlier in the further fallout from the US economic slump.

The second-largest US bank said rising unemployment and write- downs on housing prices were factors in the drop.

Revenues at the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank fell to 17.3 billion dollars, down 6 per cent from the first quarter of 2007, Bank of America reported, in becoming the latest of the series of US financial institutes to report substantial profit drops or actual losses in the first quarter in the wake of the subprime crisis.

The bank said it was having to boost its credit risk provisions by a further 3.3 billion dollars in coping with the problems. (dpa)