JPMorgan is now worth more than three largest rivals combined

[NEW YORK] JPMorgan Chase keeps putting more distance between itself and key rivals.

The first half saw the bank’s market value surpass that of its three largest competitors, Bank of America (BOA), Citigroup and Wells Fargo, combined. It racked up US$30 billion of profit in that period, more than double its closest rival, and widened its lead over Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley in investment-banking revenue.

In recent years, Wells Fargo has been stuck under an asset cap, Citigroup has been undergoing a painful overhaul and BOA has been dragged down by a pile of low-yielding bonds bought before rates went up.

Meanwhile, JPMorgan picked up First Republic Bank on the cheap and is now the biggest US bank by US$1 trillion in assets, turning what was once a competitive top of the industry into a one-firm category.

Even so, chief executive officer Jamie Dimon sees more threats than ever.

“All of our major bank competitors are back growing and expanding, you have the fintech folks who are quite capable and quite smart who want to take big chunks of your business,” Dimon said on Tuesday (Jul 15) on the firm’s earnings call. “We are quite cautious to just declare victory, like somehow we are entitled to these returns forever.”

Indeed, some of the recent dynamics could be shifting.

Wells Fargo’s asset cap is gone, Citigroup reported its highest quarterly revenue in over a decade and Goldman widened its lead in equities trading. The Trump administration’s embrace of the cryptocurrency industry has breathed air back into some upstarts.

“I don’t know why you’d want a stablecoin as opposed to just a payment,” Dimon said. “But I do think you have fintech, these guys are very smart. They are trying to figure out a way to create bank accounts and get into payment systems and rewards programmes, and we have to be cognisant of that.” BLOOMBERG