Several giants of the US and global financial industry reported a plunge in third-quarter net income. Among the "lucky ones" were Citigroup and Wells Fargo, as well as such market leaders as JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America.
That slump in earnings reflected the picture of how the coronavirus pandemic weighed on the US financial sector. Citigroup and Wells Fargo, the third- and fourth-largest US banks by total assets respectively, reported a 60% drop in revenue from a year earlier. JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, which are ranked first and second in assets respectively, reported a 30% drop in net income. According to experts, the current strategy of the Fed contributed to such a rapid decline in returns. "You have soft loan growth and you're still feeling the impact from aggressive Fed actions earlier this year," analyst at Barclays Bank Jason Goldberg said. Indeed, the situation is a bit weird. Demand for bank loans is quite high. Besides, lenders did not make outsized provisions for expected loan losses in the third quarter as they did in the first and second quarters. However, their profits are still falling. Even such investment banks as Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley, primarily focused on capital markets, are expected to report third-quarter profit declines of about 5% to 10%.
The Fed has no immediate plans to make any drastic changes in its monetary policy. This means that in the last quarter of 2020 the US financial industry may suffer even greater losses than in the third one. The Fed's key rate is currently at a record low of 0.25%, while just a year ago it was 2.25%.
