Results for the second quarter of 2021 and first half of 2021 continued to show a theme of unwinding the provisions that banks made a year ago to cope with fallout from COVID-19. Consequently, many results improved from a year ago. Also, results mostly showed rising assets under management.

Here 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 of the institutions are alike, so the results from standalone institutions such as Julius Baer should be viewed differently from wealth management results embedded within a larger institution. These results may be subsequently revised. As not all the banks reported on the same day, the exchange rate comparisons with the dollar have been taken out. We hope readers find it useful to see these figures collated into one article. To comment, email tom.burroughes@wealthbriefing.

Citigroup
Private banking revenues came in at $993 million in the second quarter of 2021, up 4 per cent and driven by higher fees and lending volumes, partially offset by the impact of lower interest rates. Across the banking group as a whole, Citigroup logged net income in Q2 of $6.2 billion, or $2.85 per diluted share, on revenues of $17.5 billion. This compared with net income of $1.1 billion, or $0.38 per diluted share, on revenues of $19.8 billion for the same period in 2020.

JP Morgan 
Its wealth and asset management arm, including its private bank services, logged second-quarter 2021 net income of $1.153 billion, rising 74 per cent on the same period a year earlier. Net revenues rose by 20 per cent year-on-year to $4.107 billion, while non-interest costs stood at $2.586 billion, against $2.323 billion. Assets under management were $3 trillion, rising 21 per cent, driven by higher markets and net inflows into long-term products.

For the JP Morgan group as a whole, net income surged 155 per cent on a year earlier, helped by a sharp reversal of the provision for credit losses made last year as the pandemic struck, offsetting a 7 per cent drop in net revenues.

Goldman Sachs 
It reported net revenues of $15.39 billion in the second quarter of 2021, rising 16 per cent from a year before. It logged net earnings of $5.49 billion in Q2, skyrocketing from $373 million a year before. The profit result was assisted by a sharp fall in operating costs - down to $8.64 billion from $10.414 billion. The bank swung from providing for credit losses a year ago as the pandemic erupted to reversing that position. In Q2 this year, there was a negative provision for credit losses of $92 million, against $1.59 billion a year before.

Net revenues in wealth management were $1.38 billion, 25 per cent higher than the second quarter of 2020. Management and other fees were higher, reflecting the impact of higher average assets under supervision, and net revenues in private banking and lending were higher, primarily reflecting higher loan balances, it said.

Morgan Stanley
Wealth management reported net revenues for Q2 of $6.1 billion compared with $4.7 billion from a year ago. Pre-tax income of $1.6 billion in Q2 led to a reported pre-tax margin of 26.8 per cent or 27.8 per cent, excluding the impact of integration-related costs. 

UBS
Global wealth management business logged $1.29 billion in pre-tax profits in the second quarter of 2021, dipping from $1.4 billion in the previous quarter but still up sharply (47 per cent) from $880 million a year ago. Recurring net fee income rose by 30 per cent year-on-year, reflecting positive market performance and higher net new fee-generating assets. Transaction-based income rose by 16 per cent on high levels of client activity. Net credit loss costs narrowed to $14 million, from $64 million a year earlier. Cost/income ratio narrowed by 3.3 percentage points to 73.1 per cent, as income rose by 19 per cent and operating costs rose by 14 per cent. 

Fee-generating assets reached $1.416 trillion at the end of June this year, rising 7 per cent sequentially; the bank logged $25 billion of net new fee-generating assets, translating to an annualized growth rate of 8 per cent in the quarter. Total invested assets stood at $3.2 trillion.

BNY Mellon 
The firm reported a 13 per cent year-on-year percentage rise in second-quarter wealth management revenues, reaching $299 million. Pre-tax income at the US group’s wealth business surged 48 per cent to $326 million. Across the entire financial organization, net income applicable to common shareholders rose 10 per cent year-on-year to $991 million.

Northern Trust
It logged net income of $368.1 million in the second quarter of 2021, down a touch from $375.1 million in the prior quarter but up from $313.3 million a year before. The latest quarterly result included a $17.6 million pre-tax pension settlement charge. The Chicago-based group said that total assets under management (AuM) stood at $1.539 trillion, up 6 per cent from March 31, and up 22 per cent from the end of June 2020. Wealth management AuM rose 22 per cent year-on-year to $371 million; corporate and institutional services also rose 22 per cent, to $1.168 trillion.

BlackRock
The US asset management titan logged $81 billion of quarterly total net inflows, driven by continued momentum across the platform, reflecting a previously-announced $58 billion low-fee institutional index outflow related to a single client. Total assets under management reached $9.495 trillion, up from $7.317 trillion a year earlier.