The U.S. struggled to emerge from the pandemic, and its biggest bank broke an earnings record. JPMorgan wasn’t alone—Citigroup and Morgan Stanley did the same. And Goldman Sachs? Yes, Goldman too.
Wall Street thrived during 2020’s year of global catastrophe, and it’s doing even better in 2021. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s soaring investment-banking fees boosted profit to $14.3 billion, the most the centuries-old firm has ever earned in a single quarter. Citigroup Inc., where fees from underwriting shares quadrupled, saw record quarterly profit of $7.94 billion. And Morgan Stanley posted its highest net revenue yet.
And Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s $17.7 billion of revenue and $6.84 billion of earnings both set records in a quarter of Reddit-fueled stock-market mania. Fees from putting together deals for companies helped lift investment-banking revenue to a record $3.77 billion, while revenue for Goldman’s asset-management arm reached a high of $4.61 billion.
Other lenders had records too. Bank of America Corp.’s investment-banking fees climbed more than 60% to a record $2.25 billion. It also helped that banks released money from the stockpiles they had set aside for loan losses. Even at Wells Fargo & Co., plagued for years by scandal, profit soared sevenfold—but not to a record.
—With assistance from Hannah Levitt.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.