tyb and kek
JPMorgan posts record annual profit as bond trading rebounds
JPMorgan Chase & Co posted its biggest-ever annual profit on Tuesday as its bond trading business bounced back in the last three months of the year, setting an upbeat tone for the big U.S. banks reporting this week. Revenue rose at all but one of JPMorgan’s four main businesses, beating analysts expectations and sending the bank’s shares 2.2% higher. Executives were positive and clear-eyed about the outlook for 2020, as well.
“Our outlook heading into 2020 is constructive, underpinned by the strength of the U.S. consumer,” said JPMorgan Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Piepszak on a call with analysts. “In spite expected slower global growth and the backdrop of geopolitical uncertainties, we remain well-positioned.”
Big bank rivals Citigroup (C.N) and Wells Fargo (WFC.N) also reported earnings on Tuesday. Citi beat profit estimates thanks to a jump in trading revenue and strong credit card sales, while Wells Fargo’s profits slumped on a rise in legal reserves. At JPMorgan, the only business to post a decline was commercial banking, which reported revenues fell 3% on lower net interest income and higher expenses due to investments in the business.The bank’s bond trading revenue jumped 86% compared to a year earlier when financial markets were walloped industry-wide by a sell-off driven by trade and global growth concerns. Revenue from equity markets rose 15% to $1.5 billion.
Debt underwriting fees in the investment bank rose 11 percent year over year, in part thanks to the increased activity in bond issuance which made for competitive pricing conditions, she said.
Overall revenue at JPMorgan’s corporate and investment banking unit, which houses its trading and underwriting businesses, surged 31% to $9.47 billion. The consumer and community banking business, which accounts for almost half of the bank’s revenues, reported a $14 billion, or 3% rise, over last year.
Chase credit card customers used their plastic to the bank’s benefit this holiday season. The bank reported credit card, merchant services and auto revenue surged $6.3 billion or 9%, with credit card loans up 8%. But revenues were under pressure this quarter from lower deposit margins because low interest rates meant that the bank earned less on deposits it loaned out. Home lending revenue was also down 5% to $1.3 billion. Total loans, excluding home lending, rose 3% in the quarter. Home loans were down 17%.
Deposits flowed into the consumer bank in the fourth quarter, helping to offset a decline in loans, as Chase opened around 100 new bank branches 2019 in many new cities where it previously had not been located. Deposits grew 5% compared to a year ago. CEO Jamie Dimon said the U.S. consumer continued to be in a strong position. “Their wages are up, their assets are up, their investments are up, their home values are up,” he said on a call with reporters. The bank's net income rose to $8.52 billion, or $2.57 per share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31, from $7.07 billion, or $1.98 per share, a year earlier. Net revenue rose 9% to $29.21 billion. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/19617/000001961720000082/a4q19erfexhibit991narr.htm
Analysts, on average, had expected the bank to earn $2.35 per share on revenue of $27.94 billion, according to Refinitiv data.
Net interest income fell 2% to $14.3 billion.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jpmorgan-results/jpmorgan-posts-record-annual-profit-as-bond-trading-rebounds-idUSKBN1ZD1FD
way moar.
can't find it. don't know WTF I named now!
>to prop up the banks exposed positions?
you are correct. The FRB assigns a dollar amount to the endless 'programs' it offers. It's just a wash of paper into digital cash. As to say I have checks so I must have money.
Former Barclays CEO suggested Qatari side deal in 2008, London court hears
Former Barclays chief executive John Varley first suggested the bank could use a side deal to satisfy Qatar’s demands for extra cash in return for rescue funding for the bank during the 2008 credit crisis, a London court heard on Tuesday. Thomas Kalaris, one of three former top Barclays bankers who deny fraud linked to the capital raising, on Tuesday described a meeting with a senior Qatari official on June 3, 2008, and how he subsequently took the service lift to Varley’s office on the 31st floor of the bank to discuss the Gulf state’s fee demands. The case revolves around how Barclays avoided the fate of Lloyds (LLOY.L) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) and averted a state bailout with an 11 billion pound ($14.3 billion) fundraising in June and October 2008.
But the Gulf state, which became the largest single investor in Barclays, first asked for a fee of 3.75% in return for its investment — substantially above the 1.5% the bank was offering other investors, the jury has heard. “His (Varley’s) immediate reaction was that he would be prepared to offer value of 3.5%…,” Kalaris told the jury at the Old Bailey criminal court, as he began his testimony.
“He said it should be done via a side agreement”, he said, adding this was “quite common” in banking and “absolutely not” dishonest. Varley was acquitted of fraud charges last year and is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Prosecutors for the UK Serious Fraud Office allege the three former executives lied to the market and other investors by not properly disclosing 322 million pounds paid to Qatar, disguising them as “bogus” advisory services agreements (ASAs) in return for around four billion pounds in investments over 2008.
Kalaris, who ran the bank’s wealth division, Roger Jenkins, the former head of the bank’s Middle East business and Richard Boath, a former head of European financial institutions, deny conspiring to commit fraud and fraud by false representation. The men have said the ASAs were designed to be genuine side deals to secure lucrative business for Barclays in the Middle East — a region the bank was eager to exploit — and were approved by lawyers and cleared by the board.
Kalaris, 64, agreed his role in the June 2008 capital raising could be described as a “quarterback” and involved, in part, ensuring decision makers “understood what was going on”. “Did you think for a moment that Mr Varley was instructing that there should be some form of dishonest or hidden nature to the balancing payment, whatever that amount would need to be?” Kalaris’s lawyer, Ian Winter, asked.
“Never,” Kalaris responded. The trial continues.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-barclays-qatar/former-barclays-ceo-suggested-qatari-side-deal-in-2008-london-court-hears-idUSKBN1ZD27V
chek't