Quorum, developed by JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM), will become the first distributed ledger platform available through Azure Blockchain Service, enabling JPMorgan and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) customers to build and scale blockchain networks in the cloud. Read More...

JPMorgan Chase & Co shuffled the jobs of two of its most senior women executives on Wednesday, moving Chief Financial Officer Marianne Lake to a role leading consumer lending and naming the head of card services Jenn Piepszak to replace her. Read more...

Citigroup Inc. reported estimate-beating results on Monday as its investment banking business grew, and the company expanded its net-interest margin.Analysts believe that a reduction in tax rate to 21% is responsible for Citi’s improvement from a year ago. However, the bank’s income from continuing operations declined slightly, partly due to divestiture last year.

Net income increased +2% from the year-ago quarter to $4.71 billion. The company’s quarterly revenue of $18.576 billion, however, fell a bit short of $18.634 billion that analysts estimated (based on Refinitiv). "Lower market volumes and client-financing balances," were cited by the bank as reasons behind the segment’s relatively weak performance. Nevertheless, the pullback in stock-trading was partially offset by a +20% surge in Citi’s investment banking revenue.

Chief executives of some of the largest U.S. banks faced off with the House Financial Services committee for the first time since the financial crisis on Wednesday armed with the healthy balance sheets, but lawmakers grilled executives more on social issues than business fundamentals. Read More...

The bank has also zeroed-in on health-care cost increases for lower-paid employees. This step came only a day before, when the bank’s CEO along with the CEOs of other five banks including J.P Morgan Chase (JPM) were scheduled to testify before the Democrat-led House Financial Services Committee in Washington.Low wages is an pressing issue for the 2020 election and this step could be timely and strategic to diffuse any criticism in the near future. The issue is indeed alarming, owing to the gap between high salaried employees and the low waged ones like bank tellers.

Bank of America says it will help low- and moderate-income people in the U.S. become homeowners by extending $5 billion in mortgages. The five-year program, called Neighborhood Solutions, also includes grants for down payments and closing costs and mortgage packages with small down payments. “We know many of our clients want the power to own their first home, which can sometimes be challenging,” D. Steve Boland, the bank’s consumer lending head, said in the statement.The new programs will “aid them in overcoming barriers and put sustainable homeownership within reach.”

Wells Fargo is cutting about 200 jobs in the bank’s consumer banking business payroll services.The laid-off employees will be granted severance and permit to be on the bank’s health plan temporarily. The bank aims to control costs through consolidating its operations, processes’ improvement through technology and mechanization, as well as the outsourcing of certain operations.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is dismissing hundreds of workers in its asset and wealth-management division after a periodic review of staffing, according to a person briefed on the matter.Read More...

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said on Tuesday it had fined Citigroup $25 million for violating the Fair Housing Act by denying some borrowers preferential rates on the basis of their race, color or other factors. Read more...

The scandal-plagued U.S. bank Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC - Get Report) is "too big to manage," a top U.S. lawmaker told CEO Tim Sloan at a hearing Tuesday in Washington.READ MORE...

Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan took a bipartisan battering in front of the House Financial Services Committee, as lawmakers blasted the executive for a series of scandals engulfing the bank. Read More...

London headquartered HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, recently published its full-year report revealing several forecast misses primarily due to a challenging fourth quarter. The bank’s pre-tax profit for 2018 stood at $19.89 billion, 15.9% higher than the previous year, versus a forecast of a 23.8% jump to $21.26 billion.Reported revenue was 4.5% higher than 2017 to $53.78 billion versus a forecast of 6.28% higher to $54.674 billion. Other financial metrics include: Net interest margin, a measure of lending profitability, stood at 1.66% as of December 31, 2018 – higher than the 1.63% seen in 2017; earnings per share for 2018 was $0.63 compared to $0.48 in 2017; and common equity tier 1 ratio — a proportion of the bank's core capital to assets — as on December 31 2018 stood at 14 % compared to 14.5% at end-2017.

The first cryptocurrency created by a major U.S. bank is here — and it's from J.P. Morgan Chase. Read More...

Bank of America’s Q4 2018 profit tripled to a record $7.3 billion, owing to strong performance from its consumer-banking business and the lower corporate tax rate. On the back of this better-than-expected performance, shares of the company rose by +7.16% on Wednesday of last week.Credit and debit card spending also expanded by 6%. However, like most banks BAC faltered in the fixed-income trading business, where revenue fell by 15% to $1.45 billion compared to analysts estimates of $1.62 billion.

The U.S. government shutdown is causing some real pain, but economists are largely brushing off the risk to the expansion.Read More...

Despite registering a solid year-over-year increase in the fourth quarter, JP Morgan’s profit fell short of analysts’ expectations. The bank's earnings per share of $1.98 was below the $2.20 per share average estimate of analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.Producing $1.86 billion in revenue, the fixed-income trading segment fell short of the $2.2 billion estimate. The company's total revenue increased +4 percent to $26.8 billion,  but was slightly below analysts' $26.84 billion estimate. Nevertheless, the bank raked in $7.1 billion in total profit – which is nearly +70% higher compared to the year ago period.

In the third quarter, the bank showered $7.4 billion towards share buybacks, which is nearly triple the amount it spent the year before. In September 2016, Wells Fargo got itself in a controversy after announcing that it had fired 5,300 employees over several years for creating millions of fake accounts.That’s 45% higher than what the bank typically spent during the prior eight quarters. A company’s stock buyback lowers the count of its outstanding shares, and therefore potentially jacks up the company’s earnings per share (EPS).

Citigroup posted fourth-quarter profit that beat analysts' expectations on better-than-expected expense declines and loan losses.READ MORE...

According to J.P Morgan’s head of Asia Pacific oil and gas, Scott Darling, if OPEC members do not continue with their production cut for the entirety of 2019 -- promised at 1.2 million barrels off the oil market per day -- then Brent crude prices could find it extremely difficult to rise again. In an early December meeting, OPEC members and non-OPEC allies had come to an agreement that 1.2 million barrels a day would be removed from the oil market for the first six months of the new year, starting January 2019.The goal of the move is to address the growing imbalance between global supply and demand.