New York, Apr 20 (IANS): Bank of America Corp. released lower earnings for the first quarter Thursday, but the results still beat Wall Street's estimates as the credit quality improved.

The US second largest bank said its profit, excluding certain one-time items, increased to $3.7 billion, or 31 cents a diluted share in the first quarter, from $2.6 billion a year earlier. That beat the average per share earnings estimate of 12 cents, reported Xinhua.

Boosted by the better-than-expected earnings, Bank of America's shares jumped over 3 percent in the pre-market trading and pared gains after opening.

The bank's net income was $653 million, or 3 cents per share, much lower than $2.0 billion, or 17 cents a share in the same period of 2011. Revenue declined to $22.5 billion from $27.1 billion a year earlier.

But compared to the fourth quarter last year, the bank joined its rivals of JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, showing improvement as they all benefited from signs of strength in the US economy and more activity in the capital markets.

"Our strategy is paying off: With the economy steadily improving and because of the work we have done to strengthen and simplify our company, we saw improved profitability in all of our businesses this quarter compared to the fourth quarter of last year," said Brian Moynihan, chief executive officer of the Bank of America, in a statement.