A summary of the main North America banks' financial results for the first quarter as they relate to wealth management and private banking.

Below is a summary of the results from a range of the major banking groups and some other financial actors around the world. The results focus on the largest institutions which provide wealth management. Not all banks report on a calendar year schedule, and not all the institutions are alike, so the results from standalone institutions should be viewed differently from wealth management results embedded within a larger group. These results may be subsequently revised. Not all the banks reported on the same day. We hope readers find it useful to see these figures collated in one article. To comment, email tom.burroughes@wealthbriefing.com

JP Morgan
Within wealth and asset management, net income dipped 6 per cent year-on-year to $1.29 billion; net revenue rose 7 per cent to $5.109 billion, and noninterest costs rose 12 per cent to $3.46 billion. There was a net benefit of $57 million – reflecting a net reserve release – contrasting with a provision for credit losses of $28 million in Q1 2023. Assets under management stood at $3.6 trillion, up 19 per cent; client assets rose 20 per cent to $5.2 trillion, driven by higher markets and inflows of client money.

Goldman Sachs 
The Wall Street firm became the latest major US financial group to report first-quarter 2024 figures, and results for the wealth management arm were broadly positive. At the group level, pre-tax earnings and revenues rose. The asset and wealth management arm of Goldman Sachs reported a 43 per cent year-on-year jump in first-quarter 2024 pre-tax earnings, coming in at $877 million.

Wealth management fees rose 7 per cent to $1.339 billion; asset management fees rose 8 per cent to $1.113 billion. Incentive fees surged 66 per cent to $88 million, while private banking and lending net revenues jumped 93 per cent to $682 million. The effect was magnified by the sale last year of the Marcus loans portfolio. Equity investments net revenues rose 87 per cent to $222 million; with debt investments, revenues fell 15 per cent to $345 million. Across the whole of the wealth and asset management arm, net revenues rose 18 per cent to $3.789 billion.

Operating expenses at this business division fell 7 per cent on a year ago to $2.934 billion. The division’s return on average common equity rose 4.2 percentage points to 9.9 per cent. The wealth management side of the division had client assets of about $1.5 trillion at the end of the quarter. Across the whole division, assets under supervision stood at $2.848 trillion, up from $2.672 trillion.

Wells Fargo 
Within wealth management results, which include its private banking arm and advisors to ultra-high net worth individuals, it reported a 17 per cent year-on-year drop in net income, coming in at $381 million; total revenue rose 2 per cent; noninterest costs rose 6 per cent. Provision for credit losses fell. Total client assets rose 13 per cent from a year earlier to $2.186 trillion. Noninterest income rose 9 per cent, benefiting from higher asset-based fees. Wells Fargo said its fall in net interest income was caused by lower deposit balances because clients moved cash into higher-yielding alternatives.

Citigroup
The private bank logged $571 million in revenues for Q1 2024, rising 1 per cent; when Citigold and Wealth at Work business units are added, total revenue in wealth stood at $1.7 billion, dipping 4 per cent. Net income in the wealth business fell 6 per cent year-on-year to $150 million. Private bank revenues’ gain was primarily driven by improved deposit spreads and investment fee revenues, partially offset by higher mortgage funding costs. The wealth arm had estimated client investment assets under management, trust, and custody assets of $515 billion, rising 12 per cent on a year before.

Bank of America
At a record figure of $5.59 billion, Q1 2024 total wealth management revenue rose from $5.315 billion a year before; pre-tax income rose to $1.34 billion from $1.223 billion. Net income rose to just over $1.0 billion from $917 million. 

At the private bank, AuM balances were $380 billion, and the firm logged about 865 net new relationships. Across the whole of the wealth business, there were $25 billion of flows into the business, and total client balances rose 13 per cent, to almost $4 trillion.

The wealth business had a pre-tax margin of 24 per cent, down slightly from the end of the year but up from 23 per cent a year earlier.

Morgan Stanley
Wealth management net revenues in Q1 2024 rose to $6.88 billion from $6.559 billion; fee-based assets rose to $2.124 trillion at the end of March, up from $1.769 billion, and there were $26.2 billion of fee-based asset flows, rising from $22.4 billion a year before. The firm’s net new assets decelerated slightly, to $94.9 billion from $109.6 billion. The wealth business reported a pre-tax margin of 26.3 per cent for the quarter. Pre-tax income was $1.8 billion.

BNY Mellon
The US firm said that in its market and wealth services segment, total pre-tax income dipped 2 per cent year-on-year to $678 million in Q1, 2024, while total revenues rose 3 per cent to $1.517 billion. Within the Pershing business, revenues rose 3 per cent to $670 million. 

In the investment and wealth business, pre-tax income rose 15 per cent to $107 million; total fee and other revenue rose 3 per cent to $805 million. Assets under management rose 6 per cent on a year earlier to $2.015 trillion at the end of March. Wealth management client assets rose 11 per cent to $309 billion.

Northern Trust
The Chicago-headquartered firm’s net income fell 36 per cent in Q1 2024 to $214.7 million, affected by a provision for credit losses, and fall in total revenue (-6 per cent on a year earlier) to $1.654 billion. Noninterest expenses rose 6 per cent to $1.364 billion.