How Wall Street and Main Street gave a boost to banks.

new york» Wall Street and Main Street gave banks a boost last quarter.

Fees from corporate mergers and commissions from trading fueled profits at big financial firms. But average Americans also helped by taking out more home loans and paying off their debts.

Ultra-low interest rates led to a surge of refinancing and new home loans in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase created $24.7 billion worth of mortgages, up 45 percent from a year earlier, while Bank of America put together mortgages worth $13.7 billion, up 54 percent. Wells Fargo, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, generated $49 billion in home loans, up 36 percent from the same period last year.

Low interest rates are great for consumers, but they’re not so good for banks because they limit how much money they can charge people for loans.

People are staying on top of their debt payments. Loans that were 30 days late or more — an early indicator of problems with a loan — continued to fall at all major banks. Chargeoffs, which are loans that banks have written off because they have gone bad, also fell.

A pickup in corporate mergers and acquisitions helped several banks report strong results at their investment banking divisions. The value of global mergers and acquisitions reached $888 billion in the first quarter, the highest level for the period in at least five years, according to data provider Dealogic.

Financial markets, particularly currency and oil, were volatile. Those swings may make average investors nervous, but the heightened volatility can be good for bottom lines. As trading volume rises, banks earn more in trading commissions because investors change their positions more often.