Bank

JPMorgan Chase has the most profitable year of any American bank, ever

Wednesday, January 15, 2020 by Snacks

Big money mood... How JPMorgan Chase is feeling after its biggest year of profit, ever (and best year of any bank in US history, nbd). While you racked up travel points with Chase Sapphire Reserve, JPMorgan pulled in $36B in profits for 2019 (a 12% increase from 2018) — that 1-year profit is more than twice Lyft's entire company valuation, aka Lyft's market capitalization.

More than half of Americans are customers... of JPM's retail bank, Chase. Here's how it got so intimate with so many US wallets:

  1. Lotta acquisitions: JPM merged with Chase (the #3 largest bank at the time) in 2000, bought Bank One in 2004 (#6), and then scooped up Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual during the '08 financial crisis.
  2. Insane branches: In the app age, physical bank branches are still somehow big. JPM Chase's 4,900 branches and 16K ATMs only trail Wells Fargo. It added 400 more branches last year.
  3. Perks on perks: Everyone has that friend obsessed with their Chase Sapphire card — it's so popular, they ran out of the metal to make it.
THE TAKEAWAY

JPM's success reflects Wall Street and Main Street... JPM's stock has risen thanks to the kumbaya good times on stock markets and the broader economy right now. Here's what its record profit screams:

  • Wall Street ...booming. Stocks are at record highs thanks to rising profits, fueling investing banking activity for JPM.
  • Main Street ...booming. The unemployment rate is at a record low, which drives demand for JPM's lending and retail banking biz.
  • Taxes ...cut thanks to Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Overnight, companies became way more profitable as they shipped less money to the IRS (JPM's tax rate was 18% last year).
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