Biggest U.S. Banks Report Bumper Profits Amid Industry Turmoil

The biggest banks have so far fared OK, and many of them picked up deposits last month when nervous customers yanked their money from smaller banks.

Even as the banks warned that the economy was on tenterhooks and that credit could become scarce, they said they would keep making loans and expected stronger profits if interest rates continued to rise.

The giants of the industry weren’t totally immune from the chaos surrounding the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Deposits at JPMorgan and Wells Fargo fell by 7% and 8% from a year ago, while Citigroup was roughly flat. JPMorgan deposits did rise slightly, however, compared with the fourth quarter of 2022. Some of the biggest US banks saw deposits fleeing from smaller lenders following SVB’s collapse.

The giants of the industry weren't totally immune from the chaos surrounding the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Deposits at JPMorgan and Wells Fargo fell by 7% and 8% from a year ago, while Citigroup was roughly flat. JPMorgan deposits did rise slightly, however, compared with the fourth quarter of 2022. Some of the biggest US banks saw deposits fleeing from smaller lenders following SVB's collapse.

Although big banks are enjoying the rise of interest rates as their loan profit increase, they have also written off a combined $3.4 billion in bad consumer loans in the first three months of 2023, a 73% increase from a year earlier. That, combined with additional reserves, boosted provisions at all four institutions to levels not seen since the earliest days of the Covid-19 pandemic.