narayan
Asset and wealth management divisions at JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup all boasted double-digit year-over-year revenue growth, though broader earnings results were more mixed.
Within J.P. Morgan’s Consumer and Community Banking division, Banking & Wealth Management net revenue jumped 3% year-over-year to $10.6 billion, “driven by higher asset management fees in J.P. Morgan Wealth Management” and higher deposit-related fees (though revenue dropped 3% quarter-over-quarter).
Net income in the firm’s asset and wealth management division was up 12% to $1.8 billion, with net revenue up 11% to $6.4 billion. Non-interest expenses were up 12%, largely due to “higher revenue-related compensation and continued growth in private banking advisor teams,” and higher distribution fees. Managed assets were up 16% to $4.8 trillion.
During the earnings call this morning, Dimon responded to questions about the $1.8 trillion private credit industry. During an earnings call last year, following First Brands’ bankruptcy, he said investors should be “forewarned” about the private credit market, saying “when you see one cockroach, there are probably more.”
However, in this morning’s earnings call, Dimon reiterated his assertion from his annual shareholder letter from earlier this month, arguing that private credit likely was not a systemic risk, and that banks would have to “have very large losses in private credit” before hitting real trouble.
“It doesn’t mean you won’t feel some stress and strain, and you might have to do something about it, but I’m not particularly worried about it,” he said. “I’d be more worried about when there’s a credit cycle; how’s that going to filter through the whole system? That to me is a bigger issue.”
Traders at J.P. Morgan and Citigroup (which also announced earnings on Tuesday) both boasted blockbuster quarters, buoyed by the market volatility following the war in Iran, artificial intelligence’s continued disruption and ramifications of President Donald Trump’s trade policies.
J.P. Morgan traders had their highest-ever quarterly revenue, while Citigroup hit its own highest quarterly revenue in a decade. The latter firm’s wealth business also jumped 11% in revenue, mirroring other firms’ wealth revenue boosts in quarterly earnings this year (Bloomberg reported last month that the bank was considering buying a bank or wealth brokerage firm).
At Wells Fargo, total revenue for the firm’s wealth and asset management division was up 14% from last year’s first quarter, and unlike most firms, also up from the fourth quarter of 2025 (albeit only by 1%).
Net interest was up 24% year over year and 4% over the quarter due to higher deposit and loan balances, while expenses were up 11% on higher revenue-related compensation expenses, offset by “efficiency initiatives.”
The strong wealth numbers offset a more mixed picture for Wells Fargo as a whole, with the bank missing analysts’ net interest income estimates ($12.1 billion vs. $12.3 billion). The news dragged Wells Fargo shares down 5.8% this morning (the stock having fallen 13% this year so far).
According to CFO Mike Santomassimo, the firm’s wealth business will help the bank meet its intended return on tangible common equity target of 17% to 18%, which measures how effectively the company uses the capital it generates.
After an analyst questioned whether that was doable, considering the bank’s margins, Santomassimo said the wealth division would “continue to have fees that come in” that are high-returning, with about 2,500 advisors across a branch system, and that “momentum is just really building.”
“If you look at the wealth business … and as that business just grows through naturally improving the net flows we’re getting, the recruiting we’re seeing, you’re going to see contribution from that business as well,” he said.
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