JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in America by assets reported favorable results on Wednesday, beating analysts’ estimates on trading revenue. It is the first major bank to report earnings this quarter, leading the way to offer a look at how banks are doing alongside progress in COVID-19 vaccinations.
JPMorgan’s revenue came in at $33 billion, up 14% from a year ago, driven by the bank’s strong performance in the corporate and investment banking division.
“JPMorgan Chase earned $14.3 billion in net income reflecting strong underlying performance across our businesses, partially driven by a rapidly improving economy,” CEO Jamie Dimon said in a statement.
“With all of the stimulus spending, potential infrastructure spending, continued Quantitative Easing, strong consumer and business balance sheets and euphoria around the potential end of the pandemic, we believe that the economy has the potential to have extremely robust, multi-year growth.”
Last week, Dimon wrote in a letter to shareholders that major banks face an existential crisis from fast-growing fintech rivals, as banks plays a minuscule role in the financial system. He also said the stock market valuations are high due to excess savings making it into equities.
Dimon seems the economy recover by 2023, but added that banks may face tougher times in the coming months.
JPMorgan’s earnings climbed 477% to $4.50 a share. A major boost came from JPMorgan releasing $5.2 billion from credit loss reserves.
The bank’s consumer banking revenue fell 10% to $6.7 billion. Its investment banking revenue tripled to $2.9 billion. Fixed-income trading revenue grew 15% to $5.8 billion, while equities trading revenue rose 47% to $3.3 billion. Commercial banking and asset management rose 11% to $2.4 billion and 20% to $4.1 billion respectively.
Shares of JPMorgan were trading down 1.68% near $151.39 in the pre-market.
