Bank of America’s CEO Ken Lewis says he was “pleased” that BofA earned a surprising $3.2B or 33 cents a share for the second quarter but added that the second half of the year would be “much tougher.” Analysts have observed that Bank of America is gaining because of heavier trading activity during the second quarter.

Lewis announced BofA’s successful capital generation and claimed that the bank is in its “strongest capital position in recent memory.” In addition, BofA is drawing in new deposits, its average retail deposit base surging to 26% from last year because of the Merrill Lynch acquisitions and Countrywide Financial.

During the past year, BofA had performed poorly, and even needed over $45 billion in Treasury loans to cover up its losses. Coupled with the controversial Merrill Lynch deal that almost cost Lewis his chairmanship, BofA seems to be progressing for now, along with other big banks that fared as better this week.

Rival JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs also came out with strong numbers. Separately, CitiGroup also posted surprising profits, announcing a quarterly earnings of $4.3 billion, a welcome development from the reported $2.5 billion figure last year during the same period.

All this seems to indicate that the banking industry has somewhat stabilized due to aggressive capital-raising. BofA, for one, was able to raise $33 billion.

This perceived stability does not come without caution however. According to Tony Plath, finance professor at the University of North Carolina, “The numbers were good, but big consumer banks, and Bank of America is the biggest, they are the ones who have the most to lose in a prolonged consumer-oriented recession.”

Bank of America has around 55 million consumers and small business customers, making it both ready to take advantage of economic recovery as well as vulnerable to delinquencies and defaults.