JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America say there has not been a spark to break the slump in trading revenue.
Revenue from trading has dropped 15% so far this quarter compared with the same period a year ago, JPMorgan Chief Financial Officer Marianne Lake said Tuesday at an investor conference in New York. Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan gave the same drop for his firm. Both said the business faces a difficult comparison to last year, when activity spiked after Donald Trump’s surprising presidential election win.
“There hasn’t been that many catalysts, it hasn’t been that exciting,” Lake said. “Volatility sill remains pretty low across the spectrum; it’s a very competitive environment.”
Lake joined Goldman Sachs Group’s CFO Marty Chavez and Bank of America’s Chief Operating Officer Tom Montag, who said at a conference last month that the languor that has plagued their trading businesses in the last two quarters has persisted into the fourth period. Chavez said his bank’s commodities unit is on pace for its worst year in the firm’s history as a public company.
Still, the lack of volatility hasn’t been a problem in JPMorgan’s corporate and investment bank, where fees should rise in the “high single digits” as activity levels have been healthy, Lake said. And, if passed, the proposed U.S. tax changes should continue to help that business, Lake said.
