Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, reported a year-over-year drop in earnings for the third quarter on Wednesday, beating Wall Street’s earnings estimates but missing on revenue as the bank continued to grapple with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company reported third-quarter diluted earnings per share of 51 cents, just above the consensus estimate in a Bloomberg survey of analysts for an adjusted EPS of 49.5 cents. This came in 5 cents below the third-quarter EPS of 56 cents a year ago. Bank of America reported net earnings of $4.9 billion, down from $5.8 billion a year earlier.

The Charlotte-based bank’s earnings showed improvement from the previous quarter, though company leaders said its costs were still elevated from COVID-19. CEO Brian Moynihan called the third quarter an “overall solid performance” as customer payment levels increased. The bank executive added that the company handled market risk well and that the economy made progress toward economic recovery during the quarter.

“We are seeing a return to the fundamentals of a generally sound underlying economy, but we won’t get there until we fully address the health care crisis and its associated effects,” Moynihan said during his prepared remarks for the quarter’s earnings conference call Wednesday morning. “These effects have been lessened by the monetary and fiscal policies and by the core health of the U.S. consumer given those policies.”

The company said its revenues were pressured by low interest rates. Bank of America reported total revenue, net of interest expense, of $20.3 billion for the third quarter. This missed analyst estimates of $20.84 billion in revenue and was down from $22.8 billion a year prior.

In the conference call, Moynihan emphasized that capital levels and liquidity are at historically high levels for the bank. Later, asked how the company is using its cash, CFO Paul Donofrio said it deployed about $100 billion of its cash into mortgage-backed securities and treasuries in the third quarter.

Though the effects of this cash deployment are not immediately apparent, Donofrio said “you’ll see more of that impact in Q4,” adding that the company will likely continue to deploy more cash into securities — though the exact amount is currently unclear.

In consumer banking, Donofrio said loans grew year-over-year. He said the company remains optimistic that the larger loan declines from past quarters are behind it, and said spending on credit cards is picking up.

The bank reported total loans and leases of $955.2 billion for the third quarter, down from $972.9 billion a year ago. Following a record second quarter for investment banking, Moynihan and Donofrio also said the pipeline for investment banking looked “solid.”

Shares of Bank of America stock were trading at $24.18 Wednesday morning, down 77 cents, or 3.09 percent.