The major banks this week reported Q3 returns. For top three U.S. banks—Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs—NASDAQ summarized [1] that " results were notably better than expected" but "mixed."
JPMorgan Chase [2] also reported better financial performance than was expected, and less-than-expected losses.
And Citigroup reported [3] Q3 earnings that beat profit and revenue estimates.
Michael Corbat, Citigroup's CEO, said, “We continue to navigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic extremely well. Credit costs have stabilized; deposits continued to increase; and revenues are up 3% year-to-date. Our Institutional Clients Group again had very strong performance, especially in Markets, Investment Banking and the Private Bank. The backbone of our global network, Treasury and Trade Solutions experienced strong client engagement in the face of low interest rates. Although Global Consumer Banking revenues remained lower as a result of the pandemic, we did see higher activity in our mortgage and wealth management products."
Goldman Sachs, as the NASDAQ Banks Report put it, "posted a return to its old big-winning ways, blowing the doors off Q3 earnings."
"Our ability to serve clients who are navigating a very uncertain environment drove strong performance across the franchise, building off a strong first half of the year. As our clients begin to emerge from the tough economy brought on by the pandemic, we are well positioned to help them recover and grow, particularly given market share gains we’ve achieved this year,” said Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon.
Bank of America [4] reported coming up short and Wells Fargo [5] reportedly missed on its earnings.
Wells Fargo's CEO Charlie Scharf said, “Our third quarter results reflect the impact of aggressive monetary and fiscal stimulus on the US economy. Strong mortgage banking fees, higher equity markets, and declining sequential charge-offs positively impacted our results, while historically low interest rates reduced our net interest income and our expenses continued to remain elevated. We continue to provide support for our customers having helped more than 3.2 million consumers and small businesses by deferring payments and waiving fees.”