Chase Sapphire Reserve... minus the reserves. Banks kicked off earnings season with jaw-dropping earnings. JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs reported first — Citi, BoA, and Morgan Stanley are up next. A year ago, banks added billions in rainy day funds to their reserves. 17M Americans were newly unemployed, so banks set aside $$$ to prep for loan losses. Think: defaults on mortgages and biz loans. But economic healing happened faster than banks expected — and big loan losses never materialized. In fact...
Bankers dropping bangers... Your quarterly reminder that Goldman's CEO is an EDM DJ. The IPO boom also helped banks, big time. JPM's investment banking revenue more than tripled, while Goldman's i-banking revenue soared 73%. Corporate and investment banking made up nearly half of JPM's revenue last quarter, and most of Goldman's.
Banks are selling shovels.. to the Wall Street gold rush. In the first quarter of the year, IPO companies raised a record $162B (compared to $37B in the first quarter of 2020). And SPACs have already raised more in 2021 than they did in all of 2020. Banks are the ones making IPOs and SPAC mergers happen — and they're getting paid big bucks for underwriting and advising. Banks with big Wall Street arms (like Goldman and JPM) are cashing in the most.