Loan growth stalls despite profit, trading gains at some big banks
Apr 13, 2017 01:28 PM EDT
Big U.S. banks revealed more evidence of a slowdown in loan growth in their earnings reports on Thursday, though executives assured there is still healthy demand from borrowers and no reason to worry about the state of the economy.
JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and Citigroup Inc (C.N) posted higher first-quarter earnings that beat analysts' expectations on large gains in trading revenue. Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N), which relies more on traditional lending and less on markets-related businesses, reported a slight dip in profit due to a slowdown in mortgage banking.
The results underscored concerns expressed recently by analysts and investors that higher interest rates, combined with uncertainty about geopolitical events, could hurt economic growth - and therefore crimp lenders' bottom lines.
But on conference calls to discuss results, top bank executives dismissed those concerns, citing strong demand from borrowers with impressive credit quality.
"I wouldn't overreact to the short term in our loan growth with so many things that affect it," said JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon.
Read the rest of the story from Reuters here.