Polini said that what stood out for Bank of America in the quarter was its lending. "They actually had decent loan growth and everyone else had a much more noticeable decline," he said, noting the bank's commercial loans were up 3.4 percent in the quarter.
"Loan growth at BofA certainly looks better than their mega-cap peers, at least this quarter," he added.
(Read More: Bank of America Earnings Fall Short of Expectations)
The banks also recorded some high expenses that will come off in the second quarter, adding at least 6 or 7 cents in the second quarter, the analyst said. Litigation expenses should also be lower in 2013 than in 2012, "so that's actually helping operating leverage as we go forward."
While there were some positives, mortgage banking income was weak and "it wasn't a blowout quarter from an investment banking standpoint," Polini said. But the mortgage business is a lower percentage of total revenue than it is at Wells Fargo and less likely to cause an EPS miss on any given quarter, the analyst said.