Underlying net profits at Bank of America Merrill Lynch's investment bank broke even in the fourth quarter on the back of impressive performance from its fixed-income, currencies and commodities desk, which emerged as one of the most improved on Wall Street over the period.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch's global banking and markets division made an underlying net gain of $41m in the last three months of 2011. However, the investment banking division's bottom-line figure was a loss of $433m in the fourth quarter after Bank of America Merrill Lynch took into account debt valuation adjustments, or DVAs.